■ 
J 



*,» ■ . 



CONSTITUTION OF MAN 



CONSIDERED IN 



RELATION TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 



GEORGE COMBE. 



" Vain is the ridicule with which one foresees some persons will 
divert themselves, upon finding lesser pains considered as instances 
of divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or eva- 
ding the general thing here intended, without denying all final 
causes." — Butler's Analogy. 



FROM THE THIRD ENLARGED EDINBURGH EDITION. 



NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM H. COLYER, 

NO. 5 HAGUE-STREET. 

1843. 



, 



o 









OooK CO- 



;. 193* 



Jan. 22. 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE THIRD EDINBURGH EDITION. 



The Author is gratified to find that the present Work 
has been received with increa b Lig favour, in proportion ai 
it has been studied. The first edition was published in 
1828 ;— -it consisted of only 1500 copies, and nearly seven 
years elapsed before another edition was demanded in this 
country. In March 1835, however, a second edition, of 
3000 copies, was published, which has been bought up in 
four months. Three editions have been printed in the 
United States of America, while a translation in French has 
appeared in Paris, and another in Swedish at Stockholm. 
The present edition is carefully revised and corrected, and 
considerably enlarged. 



23 Charlotte Square, 
Edinburgh, 1th August t 183&. 



HENDERSON BEQUEST. 

On 27th May 1829, the late W. R. Henderson, Esq. 
younger of Warriston and Eildon Hall, executed a deed of 
settlement, by which he conveyed to certain trustees such 
funds as he should die possessed of; and, in the event of 
his dying without leaving children, he appointed them to 
pay certain legacies and annuities to individual friends, and 
gave the following instructions regarding the application 
of the residue of his funds. 

"And, lastly, the whole residue of my means and estate 
shall, after answering the purposes above written, be applied 
by my said trustees in whatever manner they may judge 
best for the advancement and diffusion of the science of 
Phrenology, and the practical application thereof in particu- 
lar ; giving hereby and committing to my said trustees, the 
most full and unlimited power to manage and dispose of the 
said residue, in whatever manner shall appear to them best 
suited to promote the ends in view : Declaring, that if I 
had less confidence in my trustees, I would make it impera- 
tive on them to print and publish one or more editions of an 
• Essay on the Constitution of Man considered in relation 
to External Objects, by George Combe,' — in a cheap form, 
so as to be easily purchased by the more intelligent indi- 
viduals of the poorer classes, and Mechanics' Institutions, 
&c. ; but that I consider it better only to request their par- 
ticular attention to this suggestion, and to leave them quite 
at liberty to act as circumstances may seem to thsm to 
render expedient ; seeing that the state of the country, and 
things impossible to foresee, may make what would be of 
unquestionable advantage now, not advisable at some future 
period of time. But if my decease shall happen before any 
material change affecting this subject, I request them to act 
agreeably to my suggestion. And I think it proper here to 
declare, that I dispose of the residue of my property in the 
above manner, not from my being carried away by a tran- 
sient fit of enthusiasm, but from a deliberate, calm, and 
deep-rooted conviction, that nothing whatever hitherto 
known can operate so powerfully to the improvement and 



Vi HENDERSON BEQUEST. 

happiness of mankind, as the knowledge and practical 
adoption of the principles disclosed by Phrenology, and 
particularly of those which are developed in the Essay on 
the Constitution of Man, above mentioned." 

Mr. Henderson having died on 29th May 1832, his Trus- 
tees, after realizing his funds, assigned a sum for publishing 
an edition of the present work, consisting of two thousand 
copies, at the price of 2s. 6d. per copy. This was con- 
siderably below the cost of production. The publication 
took place in March 1835, and before the end of May the 
whole edition was bought up, — chiefly by the class of per- 
sons for whom Mr. Henderson had intended it, the greatest 
sales having taken place in Glasgow, Dundee, Dunfermline, 
and other manufacturing towns in Scotland, and in Man- 
chester and similar towns in England. A separate and 
finer impression of one thousand copies, taken from the 
same types as the Henderson Edition, was bought up at 
the price of 4s. between May and August, and the demand 
for the work continues unabated. 

Mr. Henderson's Trustees, with every wish to continue 
to aid the circulation of the work by reducing the price, 
have not, at present, the means of doing so to a large ex- 
tent. It is only the surplus of his funds, after paying certain 
legacies and annuities that is applicable to the advancement 
of Phrenology ; and as all the annuitants named in the 
settlement are alive, and likely to live for many years, only 
a small annual surplus remains ; two years' produce of 
which was devoted to the edition published in March 1835. 
The Author, however, encouraged by the favourable recep- 
tion of the book, has endeavoured to produce a new edition, 
considerably enlarged, at a moderate price. The quantity 
of matter, if printed in an octavo volume of ordinary size 
and type, would be sold, according to the common rate of 
publishing, for 10s.; and if in duodecimo, at 7s. 6d. By 
employing a condensed yet clear stereotype, a part of the 
expense of which has been contributed by the trustees, it 
has been found possible to offer the present edition at 4s., a 
price which, it is hoped, will continue it within the reach 
of the industrious classes. 



7ih August IS 35 



PREFACE. 

This Work would not have been presented to the Public, 
had I not believed that it contains views of the constitution, 
condition, and prospects of Man, which deserve attention ; 
but these, I trust, are not ushered forth wi£h any thing 
approaching to a presumptuous spirit. I lay no claim to 
originality of conception. My first notions of the natural 
laws were derived from a manuscript work of Dr. Spurzheim, 
with the perusal of which I was honoured in 1824, and 
which was afterward published under the title of " A Sketch 
of the Natural Laws of Man, by G. Spurzheim, M. D." A 
comparison of the text of it with that of the following pages, 
will show to what extent I am indebted to my late excellent 
and lamented master and friend for my ideas on the sub- 
ject. All my inquiries and meditations since have im- 
pressed me more and more with a conviction of their im- 
portance. The materials employed lie open to all. Taken 
separately, I would hardly say that a new truth has been 
presented in the following work. The parts have nearly 
all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers 
on morals, from the time of Socrates down to the present 
day. In this respect, there is nothing new under the sun- 
The only novelty in this work respects the relations which 
acknowledged truths hold to each other. Physical laws 
of nature, affecting our physical condition, as well as 
regulating the whole material system of the universe, are 
universally acknowledged to exist, and constitute the 



elements of natural philosophy and chemical science : 
Physiologists, medical practitioners, and all who take 
medical aid, admit the existence of organic laws : And the 
sciences of government, legislation, education, indeed our 
whole train of conduct through life, proceed upon the ad- 
mission of laws in morals. Accordingly, the laws of nature 
have formed an interesting subject of inquiry to philosophers 
of all ages ; but, so far as I am aware, no author has 
hitherto attempted to point out, in a systematic form, the 
relations between those laws and the constitution of Man ; 
which must, nevertheless, be done, before our knowledge of 
them can be beneficially applied. Dr. Spurzheim in his 
" Philosophical Principles of Phrenology," adverted to the 
independent operation of the several natural laws, and 
pointed out some of the consequences of this doctrine, but 
without entering into detailed elucidations. The great 
object of the following Treatise is to exhibit several of the 
most important natural laws, and their relations and con- 
sequences, with a view to the improvement of education 
and the regulation of individuals and national conduct. 

But although my purpose is practical, a theory of Mind 
forms an essential element in the execution of the plan. 
Without it, no comparison can be instituted between the 
natural constitution of man and external objects. Phre- 
nology appears to me to be the clearest, most complete, and 
best supported system of Human Nature, which has hitherto 
been taught ; and I have assumed it as the basis of this 
work. But the practical value of the views to be unfolded 
does not depend entirely on Phrenology. The latter, as a 
theory of Mind, is itself valuable, only in so far as it is a 
just exposition of what previously existed in human nature. 
We are physical, organic, and moral beings, acting under 



PREFACE. IX 

the sanction of general laws, whether the connexion of 
different mental qualities with particular portions of the 
brain, as taught by Phrenology, be admitted or denied. 
Individuals, under the impulse of passion, or by the direc- 
tion of intellect, will hope, fear, wonder, perceive, and act, 
whether the degree in which they habitually do so be as- 
certainable by the means which it points out or not. In so 
far, therefore, as this work treats of the known qualities of 
Man, it may be instructive even to those who contemn 
Phrenology as unfounded ; while it can prove useful to 
none, if the doctrines which it unfolds shall be found not to 
be in accordance with the principles of human nature, by 
whatever system these may be expounded. 

Some individuals object to all mental philosophy as use- 
less, and argue, that, as Mathematics, Chemistry, and 
Botany, have become great sciences, without the least 
reference to the faculties by means of which they are culti- 
vated, so Morals, Religion, Legislation and Political Econo- 
my have existed, have been improved, and may continue to 
advance, with equal success, without any help from the 
philosophy of mind. Such objectors, however, should con- 
sider that lines, circles, and triangles, — earths, alkalis, and 
acids, — and also corollas, stamens, pistils, and stigmas, are 
objects which exist independently of the mind, and may be 
investigated by the application of the mental powers, in 
ignorance of the constitution of the faculties themselves, — 
just as we may practise archery without studying the 
anatomy of the hand ; whereas the objects of moral and 
political philosophy are the qualities and actions of the 
mind itself: These objects have no existence independently 
of mind ; and they can no more be systematically or scienti- 
fically understood without the knowledge of mental philoso- 



Z PREFACE. 

phy, than optics can be cultivated as a science in ignorance 
of the structure and modes of action of the eye. 

I have endeavoured to avoid religious controversy. " The 
object of Moral Philosophy," says Mr. Stewart, " is to 
ascertain the general rules of a wise and virtuous conduct 
in life, in so far as these rules may be discovered by the 
unassisted light of nature ; that is, by an examination of the 
principles of the human constitution, and of the circum- 
stances in which man is placed."* By following this 
method of inquiry, Dr. Hutcheson, Dr. Adam Smith, Dr. 
Ried, Mr. Stewart, and Dr. Thomas Brown, have, in suc- 
cession, produced highly interesting and instructive works 
on Moral Science ; and the present Treatise is a humble 
attempt to pursue the same plan, with the aid of the new 
lights afforded by Phrenology. I confine my observations 
exclusively to Man as he exists in the present world, and 
beg that, in perusing the subsequent pages, this explanation 
may be constantly kept in view. In consequence of for- 
getting it, my language has occasionally been misap- 
prehended, and my objects misrepresented. When I speak 
of man's highest interest, for example, I uniformly refer to 
man as he exists in this world ; but as the same God pre- 
sides over both the temporal and the external interests of 
the human race, it seems to me demonstrably certain, that 
what is conducive to the one, will in no instance impede 
the other, but will in general be favourable to it also. This 
work, however, does not directly embrace the interests of 
eternity. These belong to the department of theology, and 
demand a different line of investigation : I confine myself 
exclusively to philosophy. 

Since the first Edition of this work appeared, on 9th 
* Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p. 1 



June 1828, additional attention has been paid to the study 
of the laws of Nature, and their importance has been more 
generally recognised. In " A Discourse on the Studies of 
the University, by Adam Sedgwick, M. A., &c." of which a 
third edition was published at Cambridge in 1834, the 
author remarks, that " we are justified in saying, that, in 
the moral as in the physical world, God seems to govern by 
general laws." " I am not now," says he, " contending for 
the doctrine of moral necessity ; but I do affirm, that the 
moral government of God is by general laws, and that it is 
our bounden duty to study these laws, and, as far as we 
can, to turn them to account." " If there be a superintend- 
ing Providence, and if his will be manifested by general 
laws operating both on the physical and moral world, then 
must a violation of these laws be a violation of his will, and 
be pregnant with inevitable misery." " Nothing can, in 
the end, be expedient for man, except it be subordinate to 
those laws the Author of Nature has thought fit to impress 
on his moral and physical creation." " In the end, high 
principle and sound policy will be found in the strictest 
harmony with each other." 

These are precisely the views which it is the object of 
the present work to enforce ; and it is gratifying to me to 
see them so ably and eloquently recommended to the atten- 
tion of the students of the University of Cambridge. 



23 Charlotte Square, 
Edinburgh, 1th August 1835. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



OENERAL VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE, 
AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS, . 1-23 



Man compared with the lower animals, page 1 — Opposite phases 
of his character, 2 — The world seems constituted on the prin- 
ciple of slow and progressive improvement, 3 — Light thrown 
by geology on the physical history of the globe before the crea- 
tion of man, 4 — Death and reproduction existed long before his 
creation, 5 — The world arranged so as to afford him every in- 
ducement to cultivate and exercise his understanding, 6 — 
Power of man to control and turn to account the capabilities 
of the physical world, 6 — Barbarism and civilization compared, 
8 — Progressive improvement of man apparent from history, 
9 — Reasons for anticipating a vast future increase of the hap- 
piness and intelligence of our race, 11 — Mental philosophy 
nitherto very imperfect, 11 — Do the physical and moral worlds 
contain within themselves the elements of amelioration, or is 
human improvement to be expected from spiritual influence? 
12 — The capabilities of physical and human nature have hither- 
to been ignorantly undervalued, 13 — Errors of theologians on 
this subject, 13 — Light thrown upon the question by Phre- 
nology, 15 — Constitution of the human mind, and its adapta- 
tion to the external world, blinked in the Bridge water Treatise, 
18 — Natural laws, physical, organic, and moral, 19 — The in- 
dependent operation of these very important in relation to the 
moral government of the world, 19 — The present work not hos- 
tile to religion, 21 — Philosophy and revelation cannot be at 
variance, 21 — Physiological preliminaries of moral and reli- 
gious conduct must exist before preaching can produce its full 
effects, 22. 



*lT CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

OF NATURAL LAWS, . . . 23-35 

Man's faculties capable of ascertaining what exists, and the pur- 
pose of what exists, but not the will of the Deity in creation, 
page 23 — All the departments of nature act according to definite 
constitutions and fixed laws, imposed by the Deity, 24 — The 
term law defined and illustrated, 24 — Man's pleasure and pain 
depend, in tnis world, upon observance of and obedience to 
these constitutions and laws ; an opinion supported by Bishop 
Butler, 26 — The Natural Laws divided into Physical, Organic, 
and Moral, and obedience or disobedience to each asserted to 
have distinct effects ; while the whole are universal, invari- 
able, unbending, and in harmony with the entire constitution 
of man, 27, &c. — Death in certain circumstances appears 
desirable, 32 — Full and universal obedience not supposed to 
lead to perfect happiness on earth, or to interfere with the 
prospects of futurity, 32 — Benevolence not the exclusive, or 
immediate, but the ultimate principle on which the world is 
arranged ; evil in no case the ultimate, but only in certain in- 
stances the immediate, principle, and that for wise and benevo 
lent ends, 34 — The will of the Deity in designing evil mscru 
table, but the mental constitution of man shown by Phrenology 
to bear relation to it, 35. 

CHAPTER II. 

ON THE CONSTITUTION OP MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO 
EXTERNAL OBJECTS, 36-75 

The constitution of of man, on the principle of a subjection of the 
whole to intellect and the higher sentiments, shown by Bishop 
Butler to be conformable to the constitution of the external 
world, p. 36 — (1.) Man considered as a physical being, and 
the evils resulting from breach of the physical laws shown 
to be only exceptions from the benefits habitually flowing 
from those laws, 37, &c. — (2.) Man considered as an organ- 
ized being, and the rules for the enjoyment of bodily health 
explained. 39, &c. — (3.) Man considered as an animal, 
moral, and intellectual being, and his mental constitution de 
tailed, 44, &c. — (4.) The mental faculties compared with each 
other, 50, &c. — Their uses and abuses, 50 — The propensities 
designed for good, when acting harmoniously with, and guided 
by, the higher sentiments and intellect ; otherwise lead to evil 



CONTENTS. XT 

51 — True happiness of individuals and societies found ulti- 
mately to consist in a habitual exercise of the higher senti- 
ments and intellect, with the propensities acting subordinately, 
52 — (5.) The faculties of man compared with external objects, 
and the means of their gratification specified, 68-75 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE SOURCES OP HUMAN HAPPINESS, AND THE CONDI- 
TIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT, . 75-87 

kl\ enjoyment arises fiom activity of the different parts of the 
human constitution, p. 75 — Creation so arranged as to invite 
and encourage exercise of the bodily and mental powers, 76 — 
The acquisition of knowledge agreeable, 77— Would intuitive 
knowledge be more advantageous to man, than the mere capa- 
city which he actually has to acquire knowledge by his own 
exertions ? 78 — Reasons for answering this question in the 
negative, 79 — To reap enjoyment in the greatest quantity, and 
maintain it most permanently, the faculties must be gratified in 
harmony with each other, 85 — Reasons for believing that the 
laws of external creation will, in the progress of discovery, be 
found accordant with the dictates of the moral sentiments, 86 



CHAPTER IV. 

APPLICATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE PRACTICAL 
ARRANGEMENTS OP LIFE, .... 87-97 

Suggestion of a scheme of living and occupation for the human 
race, p. 87 — Every day ought to be so apportioned as to permit 
of (1) bodily exercise; (2) useful employment of the intellec- 
tual powers ; (3) the cultivation and gratification of the moral 
and religious sentiments ; (4) the taking of food and sleep, 88 
— Gratification of the animal faculties included in these, 90 — 
Why has man made so little progress towards happiness ? 90 
— A reply to this question very difficult, 91 — Dr. Chalmers 
quoted on the subject, 91 — Has man advanced in happiness in 
proportion to the increase of his knowledge ? 93 — His progress 
retarded by ignorance of his constitution and its adaptation to 
external objects, 94 — The experience of past ages affords no 
sufficient reason for limiting our estimate of man's capability 
of civilization, 95 — Recerrt date of some of the most important 
scientific discoveries, and imperfect condition of most branches 
pf human knowledge, 95-97. 



Xfl CONTENTS* 



CHAPTER V. 

fO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFER 
ABLE TO INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAWS OF NATURE ? 97-243 

Section I. 

Calamities arising from Infringement of the Physical Laws, 98-102 

These laws of great utility to animals who act in accordance with 
them, and productive of injury only when disregarded, 99--Ex- 
ample of law of gravitation, 99 — Man and the lower animals 
constitutionally placed in certain relations to that law, 99 — Ca- 
lamities suffered from it by man, to what referable '( 100 — The 
objection considered, that the great body of mankind are not 
sufficiently moral and intellectual to act in conformity with the 
natural laws, 101 — the more norant and careless "men are, 
the more they suffer, 101. 

Section II. 

Evils that befall Mankind from Infringement of the Organic 
Laws, 102-193 

Necessity for so enlightening the intellect as to enable it to curb 
and direct the blind feelings which naturally and spontaneous- 
ly arise in the mind, 103 — Organized being denned, 104 — To 
enjoy a constitution as perfect as possible, it must spring from 
a sound and complete germ ; be supplied with food, light, and 
air; and duly exercise its functions, 104 — The human frame 
so constituted as to admit of the possibility of health and vigour 
during a long life, 105 — Remarkable health of the New Zea- 
landers, 105 — The sufferings of women in childbed apparently 
not inevitable, 105 — The organic laws hitherto neglected and 
little known, 106— Miseries resulting from this cause to indi- 
viduals, 106 — Description of the brain, 109 — Necessity for 
its regular exercise, 113, &c. — To provide for this, we must 
(1) educate and train the mental faculties in youth, and (2) 
place individuals in circumstances habitually demanding the 
discharge of useful and important duties, 114 — Answer to the 
question, What is the use of education ? 114 -The whole body 
improved by exercise of the brain, 115 — Misery of idleness, 
117 — Instances of evils produced by neglect of the natural 
laws: The great plague in London, 118; fevei and ague in 
marshy districts, 119; explosions in coal-mines, 119 — Answei 



CONTENTS. XVll 

to the objection, That men are unable to remember the natu 
ral laws, and to apply the knowledge of them in practice, 120 
— Advantage of teaching scientiiic principles, 121 — Farther 
examples of disease and premature death consequent on neg- 
lect of the organic laws, 123-132 — Eminent success of Cap- 
tain Murray in preserving the health of his crew, 124 — Erro- 
neous views of divine dispensations, in the works of religious 
writers, 130— Ebenezer Erskine and Hannah More quoted, 
130, 131 — Social miseries from neglect of the organic laws, 
133 — (1.) Do?nestic miseries, 133 — Marriage of persons with 
discordant minds a fertile source of unhappiness, 133 — Phre- 
nology affords the means of avoiding this error, 133 — Different 
forms of heads, and the concomitant dispositions, exemplified 
by the cases of Hare, Williams, Sheridan, Meiancthon, Pope 
Alexander VL, and Vitellius, 134-140 — Crabbe and Dr. John- 
son quoted, 142 — Hereditary transmission of bodily and mental 
qualities from parents to children, 143 — Transmission of dis- 
eases well known, 143 — Transmission of character remarked 
by many writers; Horace, Drs. John and James Gregory, 
Voltaire, Dr. King, Dr. Mason Good, Haller, &c. quoted on 
this subject, 144-147 — Hereditary descent of forms of brain 
obvious in nations, 147 — The offspring of an American or 
Asiatic ana a European superior to the offspring of two Ameri- 
cans or Asiatic, 148 — Tho extent to which children resemble 
their parents considered, 149 — Reasons for concluding that 
the mental character of each child is determined by the quali- 
ties of the stock, combined with the faculties predominant in 
the parents at the commencement of its existence, 150 — 
Transmission of factitious or temporary conditions of the body, 
150 — Transmission of acquired habits, 151 — Appearance of 
peculiarities in children, in consequence of impressions made 
on the mind of the mother, 153 — Descent of temporary mental 
and bodily qualities, 154— These subjects still in many res- 
pects obscure, 160 — General neglect of the organic laws in the 
formation of marriages, 161 — Dr. Caldwell quoted, 162 — Mar- 
riage prohibited in Wurtemberg before certain ages, 163 — 
Advantages arising from the law of hereditary descent, and bad 
effects which would follow its abolition, 164, &c. — Why do 
children of the same marriage differ from each other? 169 — 
Cases illustrative of the evils resulting from neglect of the law 
of hereditary transmission, 170— Marriage between blood-rela- 
tions forbidden by the natural law, 172 — (2.) Hurtful conse- 
quences of neglect of the organic laws in the ordinary relations 
of society, 174 — Misconduct of servants, clerks, partners, and 
agents, 174 — Utility of Phrenology in enabling us to avoid 
this source of misery, 174 — Death, 177 — A natural and use- 
ful institution, 179 — Views of theologians respecting it, 179— 
Death considered as it effects the lower animals and mankind. 



Xfili CONTENTS. 

180 — Nature does not seem to intend the death of human 
beings, except in old age, 187 — Untimely death the result of 
infringement of the organic laws, 188 — Means provided by 
nature to relieve men from the fear of death, 189 — Death not 
revolting to the moral sentiments, 190 — Frequency of prema 
ture death decreasing, 193. 



Section III. 

Calamities arising from Infringement of the Moral Law, 194-244 

Cause of the diversity of moral and religious codes and opinions 
in different nations and among philosophers, 194 — Advantages 
secured by cultivating and acting under the dictates of the 
moral sentiments and intellect : and evils induced by the 
opposite conduct, 196 — (1) Sufferings of individuals from 
neglect of the moral and intellectual laws, 204 — (2) Calami- 
ties arising to individuals and communities from infringement 
of the social law, 204 — Malthus's principle of population, 208 
—The inhabitants of Britain too exclusively occupied in manu- 
facturing and mercantile pursuits, 209 — Misery produced by 
overstocking the markets, 211 — Times of " commercial pros- 
perity" are seasons of the greatest infringements of the laws 
of nature, 215 — Injustice and inexpediency of the combination 
laws, 214 — Necessity of abridging the periods for labour of the 
operative population, and cultivating their moral and rational 
faculties, 216 — This rendered possible by the use of machi- 
nery in manufactures, 219 — Ought government to interfere 
with industry ? 222 — Miseries endured by the middle and 
upper ranks in consequence of departure from the mora) law 
in the present customs of society, 223 — (3) Effect of the 
moral law on national prosperity, 225 — The highest prosperity 
of one nation perfectly compatible with that of every other. 
225 — Necessity that nations, in order to secure it, should act 
towards each other on the principle of the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments, 226 — Evil produced by disregard of that 
principle, 227 — Illustrations : the slave-trade, 227 ; the Ameri- 
can war, 230 ; the French revolutionary war, 234 ; and the 
project of Themistocles to burn the Spartan ships, 232 — The 
national debt of Britain the result of unprincipled wars, 233 — 
Other evils from the same source, 235-6 — Parliamentary re- 
form, 236 — Bad , effects anticipated from the existence of 
Negro slavery in the United States, 237 — The Spaniards 
punished under the natural laws for their cruelties in America, 
240 — The civilization of savages more easy by pacific than by 
forcible measures, 241 — Moral science far outstripped by 
physical, 242 — Necessity for cultivating the former, 243, 



MlX 



CHAPTER VL 

ON PUNISHMENT, 244-267 

Section I. 

On Punishment as inflicted under the Natural Laws, 244-267 

Laws may be instituted either for the selfish gratification of the 
legislator, or for the benefit of the governed, 244 — Gessler's 
order to the Swiss, an instance of the former; the natural laws 
of God, of the latter, 245 — The object of punishment for disobe- 
dience to the divine law is to arrest the offender, and save him 
from greater miseries, 246 — Beneficial effects of this arrange- 
ment, 246 — Laws of combustion ; advantages attending them, 
and mode in which man is enabled to enjoy these and escape 
from the danger to which he is subjected by fire, 247 — Utility 
of pain, 250— God's punishments in this world have for their 
object to bring the sufferers back to obedience for their own 
welfare, and to terminate their misery by death when tns 
error is irreparable, 251 — Punishments mutually inflicted by 
the lower animals, 251 — Punishments mutually inflicted by 
men, 253 — Criminal laws hitherto framed on the principle of 
animal resentment, 254 — Inerficacy of these from overlooking 
the causes of crime, and leaving them to operate with unabated 
energy after the infliction, 255 — Moral in preference to animal 
retribution, suggested as a mode of treatment, 255 — Every 
crime proceeds from an abuse of some faculty or other, 257— 
The question, Whence originates the tendency to abuse 1 
answered by the aid of Phrenology, 257 — Crime extinguisha- 
able only by removing its causes, 258 — The effects of animal 
and moral punishment compared, 259 — Remarks on the natu- 
ral distinction between right and wrong, 263 — The objections 
considered. That according to the proposed moral system of 
treating offenders, punishment would be abrogated and crime 
encouraged, 265; and That the author's views on this subject 
are Utopian, and, in the present state of society, impractica- 
ble, 266. 

Section II. 

Moral Advantages of Punishment. . 267-271 

The mental improvement of man not the primary object foi 
which suffering is sent, 267— Errors of some religious sects ad- 



verted to, 268 — Bishop Butler teaches, more rationally, that a 
large proportion of our sufferings is the result of our own mis- 
conduct, 268 — The objection, that punishments are often dis- 
proportionately severe, considered, 269 — Recapitulation of the 
advantages flowing from obedience, and misfortunes from <*is 
obedience, to the moral laws, 270. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL 

LAWS 271-288 

Combined operation of the natural laws illustrated by reference 
to the defects of the arrangements for jury trial in Scotland, 
271 — the great fires in Edinburgh in 1824, 273 — shipwrecks 
from ignorance or irrational conduct in the commander, 277 — 
Captain Lyon's unsuccessful attempt to reach Repulse Bay, 
281 — foundering of decayed and .ill-equipped vessels at sea, 
287 — and the mercantile distress which overspread Britain in 
1825-6, 287 — Storms may often be foreseen and provided 
against, 279. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS ON THE HAPPINESS OF 
INDIVIDUALS, 289-299 

The objection considered, that although, when viewed abstractly, 
the natural laws appear beneficent and just, yet they are un- 
deniably the cause of extenstve, severe, and unavoidable suf- 
fering to individuals, 289 — Their justice and benevolence, in 
reference to individuals, illustrated by imaginary cases of the 
suspension of various physical, organic, and social laws, 290 
—299. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SCRIP- 
TURE, . 299-322 

Science, being an exposition of the Creator's works, cannot be 
at variance with a correcly interpreted revelation of his will, 
299 — Archbishop Wakely and Professor Sedgwick quoted on 
the impropriety of testing science by Scripture 300 — In all 



CONTENTS. XXt 

ages, new doctrines have been branded as impious, 303— 
Christianity itself no exception, 303 — Phrenology may be ex- 
pected to lead to the abandonment of prevailing interpreta- 
tions of some parts of Scripture, 304 — Bearing of Phrenology 
upon the realisation of practical Christianity, 305— New direc- 
tion to the pursuits of the religious instructors of mankind 
anticipated, 308 — History demonstrates that Christianity, while 
unaided by arts and science, was corrupted itself, and had 
little influence in improving the human race, 309 — The ineffi- 
cacy of Scripture alone to produce moral and rational conduct, 
illustrated by a narrative of the persecutions for witchcraft in 
the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, 310 — 
Necessity for using all our lights in searching for the meaning 
of Scripture, 314 — Illustrative quotations from Bishop Taylor, 
on the obscurity of Scripture, the corruptions which the text 
has undergone, and the difficulty of translating it accurately, 
314 — Another illustration cited from the Rev. Dr. Fraser, 317 
— Consideration of the objection, That, according to the doc- 
trine of the natural laws, prayer must be irrational and useless, 
318 — This objection grounded on the false assumption that 
the object of prayer is to influence the Deity, 319 — Decision 
of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, that 
prayer has no effect but upon the mind of the supplicant, 319— 
This taught by Drs. Leechman and Blair, 319 — Opinion of 
Karnes on prayer, and on public worship, 320— The natural 
effects of great size and activity in the moral organs mistaken 
by some persons for the direct influence of the Holy Spirit in 
causing pure and religious emotions to spring up in the mind, 
321. 



CONCLUSION, . , . 322-336 

What is the practical use of Phrenology, even supposing it to be 
true ? 322 — Its utility pointed out in reference to politics, 324, 
legislation, 324, education, 324, morals and religion, 325, and 
the professions, pursuits, hours of exertion, and amusement! 
of individuals, 327 — The precepts of Christianity impractica- 
ble in the present state of society, 329 — Improvement antici- 
pated from the diffusion of the true philosophy of mind, 331 — 
The change, however, will be gradual, 333 — What ought edu- 
cation to embrace ? 333 — and what religious instruction? 335. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



GENERAL VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE 
AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

In surveying the external world, we discover that every 
creature and every physical object has received a definite 
constitution, and been placed in certain relations to other 
objects. The natural evidence of a Deity and his attributes 
is drawn from contemplating these arrangements. Intelli- 
gence, wisdom, benevolence, and power, characterize the 
works of creation ; and the human mind ascends by a chain 
of correct and rigid induction to a great First Cause, in 
whom these qualities must reside. But hitherto this great 
truth has rather excited a barren though sublime admiration, 
than led to beneficial practical results. 

Man obviously stands pre-eminent among sublunary ob- 
jects, and is distinguished, by remarkable endowments, 
above all other terrestrial beings. Nevertheless no creature 
presents such anomalous appearances as man. Viewed in 
one aspect he almost resembles a demon ; in another he still 
bears the impress of the image of God. Seen in his crimes, 
his wars, and his devastations, he might be mistaken for an 
incarnation of an evil spirit ; contemplated in his schemes 
of charity, his discoveries in science, and his vast combina- 
tions for the benefit of his race, he seems a bright intelligence 
from Heaven. The lower animals exhibit a moie simple 
and regulated constitution. The lion is bold and ferocious, 
but he is regularly so, and, besides, is placed in circum- 
stances suited to his nature, in which at once scope is given, 
and limits are set, to the gratification of his instincts. The 
sheep, on the other hand, is mild, feeble, and inoffensive ; 
but its external condition also is suited to its constitution, 
and it apparently lives and flourishes in as great enjoyment 
as the lion. The same remark applies to all the inferior crea- 
tures ; and the idea which I wish particularly to convey is, 
that their bodily organs, faculties, instincts, and external cii* 
1 



2 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

cumstances, forms part of a system in which adaptation and 
harmony are discoverable ; and that the enjoyment of the 
animals depends on the adaptation of their constitution to 
their external condition. If we saw the lion one day tear- 
ing in pieces every animal that crossed his path, and the 
next oppressed with remorse for the death of his victims, 
or compassionately healing those whom he had mangled, 
we should exclaim, what an inconsistent creature! and 
conclude that he could not by possibility be happy, owing 
to this opposition among the principles of his nature. In 
short, we should be strikingly convinced that two conditions 
are essential to enjoyment :' first, that the different instincts 
of an animal must be in harmony with each other ; and, 
secondly, that its whole constitution must be in accordance 
with its external condition. 

When, keeping these principles in view, we direct our 
attention to Man, very formidable anomalies present them- 
selves. The most opposite instincts or impulses exist in his 
mind : actuated by combativeness, destructiveness, acquisi- 
tiveness, and self-esteem, the moral sentiments being in 
abeyance, he is almost a fiend ; on the contrary, when in- 
spired by benevolence, veneration, hope, conscientiousness, 
ideality, and intellect, the benignity, serenity, and splendour 
of a highly elevated nature beam from his countenance, and 
radiate from his eye. He is then lovely, noble and gigan- 
tically great. But how shall these conflicting tendencies 
be reconciled, and how can external circumstances be de- 
vised that shall accord with such heterogeneous elements! 
Here again a conviction of the power and goodness of the 
Deity comes to our assistance. Man is obviously an essen- 
tial and most important part of the present system of crea- 
tion ; and, without doubting of his future destinies, we 
ought not, so long as our knowledge of his nature is incom- 
plete, to consider his condition here as inexplicable. The 
nature of man has hitherto, to all philosophical purposes, 
been unknown, and both the designs of the Creator and the 
situation of man have been judged of ignorantly and rashly. 
The sceptic has advanced arguments against religion, 
and crafty deceivers have, in all ages, founded systems of 
superstition, on the disorder and inconsistency which are 
too readily admitted to be inseparable attributes of human 
existence on earth. But I venture to hope that man will 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 3 

yH be found in harmony with himself and with the condition 
in which he is placed. 

I am aware that some individuals, whose piety is entitled 
to respect, conceive, that as the great revolutions of human 
society, as well as ail events in the lives o£ individuals, take 
place under the guidance of the Deity, it is presumptuous, 
if not impious, to endeavour to scan their causes and effects. 
But as the Creator has bestowed faculties on man, it is pre- 
sumable that he governs him in accordance with them, and 
their constitution implies that he should investigate creation. 
The young swallow, when it migrates on the approach of 
the first winter of its life, is impelled by an instinct im- 
planted by the Deity, and it can neither know the causes 
that prompt it to fly, nor the end to be attained by its flight. 
But its mental constitution is wisely adapted to this condi- 
tion ; for it has no powers stimulating it to reflect on itself 
and external objects, and to inquire whence came its desires, 
or to what object they tend. Man, however, has been framed 
differently. The Creator has bestowed on him faculties to 
observe phenomena, and to trace cause and effect ; and he 
has constituted the external world to afford scope to these powers. 
We are entitled, therefore, to say, that it is the Creator him- 
self who has commanded us to observe and inquire into the 
causes that prompt us to act, and the results that will na- 
turally follow, and to modify our conduct according to the 
discoveries which we shall make. 

To enable us to form a just estimate of our duty and in- 
terest as the rational occupants of this world, we may in- 
quire briefly into the constitution of external nature, and of 
ourselves. 

The constitution of this world does not look like a sys- 
tem of optimism. It appears to be arranged in all its de- 
partments on the principle of slow and progressive improve- 
ment. Physical nature itself has undergone many revolu- 
tions, and apparently has constantly advanced. Geology 
seems to show a distinct preparation of it for successive or- 
ders of living beings, rising higher and higher in the scale 
of intelligence and organization, until man appeared. 

The globe, in the first state in which the imagination can 
venture to consider it, says Sir H. Davy,* appears to have 

*The description in the text is extracted chiefly from "The Last 
Days of a Philosopher, " by Sir Humphrey Davy, 1831, p. 134, on 



ft VIEW OP THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATUK2, 

been a fluid mass, with an immense atmosphere revolving 
in space around the sun. By its cooling, a portion of its 
atmosphere was probably condensed into water, which oc- 
cupied a part of its surface. In this state no forms of life, 
such as now belong to our system, could have inhabited it. 
The crystalline rocks, or as they are called by geologists, 
the primary rocks, which contain no vestiges of a former 
order of things, were the result of the first consolidation on 
its surface. Upon the farther cooling, the water, which, 
more or less, had covered it, contracted ; depositions took 
place ; shell-fish and coral insects were created, and began 
their labours. Islands appeared in the midst of the ocean, 
raised from the deep by the productive energies of millions 
of zoophytes. These islands became covered with vegeta- 
bles fitted to bear a high temperature, such as palms, and 
various species of plants, similar to those which now exist 
in the hottest parts of the world. The submarine rocks of 
these new formations of land became covered with aquatic 
vegetables, on which various species of shell fish, and com- 
mon fishes, found their nourishment. As the temperature 
of the globe became lower, species of the oviparous reptiles 
appear to have been created to inhabit it ; and the turtle, 
crocodile, and various gigantic animals of the Saurian 
(lizard) kind seems to have haunted the bays and waters of 
the primitive lands. But in this state of things, there ap- 
pears to have been no order of events similar to the pre- 
sent. Immense volcanic explosions seem to have taken 
place, accompanied by elevations and depressions of the 
surface of the globe, producing mountains, and causing new 
and extensive depositions from the primitive ocean. The 
remains of living beings, plants, fishes, birds, and oviparous 
reptiles, are found in the strata of rocks which are the 
monuments and evidence of these changes. When these 
revolutions became less frequent, and the globe became 
still more cooled, and inequalities of temperature were esta- 

account of its popular style ; but similar representations maybe found 
in several recent works on Geology, — particularly "A Geological 
Manual, by H. T. De La Beche;" the Penny Magazine of 1833, in 
a very instructive popular form ; and Sedgwick's Discourse on the 
Studies of the University of Cambridge, third edition. Mr. Lyell, 
however, in the principles of Geology, vol. i. ch. ix. controverts the 
doctrine of a progressive development of plants and animals 



AND TTS RELATIONS T*. EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

Wished by means of tke mountain-chains, more perfect 
animals became its inhabitants, such as the mammoth, me- 
galonix, megatherium, and gigantic hyena, many of which 
have become extinct. Five successive races of plants, and 
four successive races of animals, appear to have been 
created and swept away by the physical revolutions of the 
globe, before the system of things became so permanent 
as to fit the world for man. In none of these formations, 
whether called secondary, tertiary, or diluvial, have the 
fossil remains of man, or any of his works, been discovered. 
At last, man was created, and since that period there has 
been little alteration in the physical circumstances of the 
globe. 

" In all these various formations," says Dr Buckland, 
"the coprolites" (or the dung of the saurian reptiles in a fos- 
sil state, exhibiting scales of fishes and other traces of the 
prey w r hich they had devoured) u form records of warfare 
waged by successive generations of inhabitants of our planet 
on one another ; and the general law of nature, which bids all 
to eat and be eaten in their turn, is shown to have been co- 
extensive with animal existence upon our globe, the carni- 
vora in each period of the world's history fulfilling their des- 
tined office to check excess in the progress of life, and main- 
tain the balanee of creation." 

This brief summary of the physical changes of the Globe, 
is not irrelevant to our present object. The more that we 
discover of creation, the more conspicuously does uniformity 
of design appear to pervade its every department. We per- 
ceive here the physical world gradually improved and pre- 
pared for man. 

Let us now contemplate Man himself, and his adaptation 
to the external creation. The world, we have seen, was in- 
habited by living beings, and death and reproduction pre- 
vailed, before Man appeared. The order of creation seems 
not to have been changed at his introduction — he appears to 
have been adapted to it. He received from his Creator an 
organized structure, and animal instincts. The brain is un- 
questionable the workmanship of God, and there exist in it 
organs of faculties impelling man to kill that he may eat, to 
oppose aggression, and to shun danger — instincts which 
clearly imply a constitution of external nature corresponding 
to that which we see existing around him. Man, then, ap- 



6 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATUXB, 

patently took his station among, yet at the head of, the beings 
that inhabited the earth at his creation. He is to a certain 
extent an animal in his structure, powers, feelings, and de- 
sires, and is adapted to a world in which death reigns, and 
generation succeeds generation. This fact, although so 
trite and obvious as to appear scarcely worthy of being no- 
ticed, is of importance in treating of Man ; because the 
human being, in so far as he resembles the inferior creatures, 
is capable of enjoying a life like theirs ; he has pleasure in 
eating, drinking, sleeping, and exercising his limbs ; and one 
of the greatest obstacles to improvement is, that many of the 
race are contented with these enjoyments, and consider it 
painful to be compelled to seek higher sources of gratifica- 
tion. But to the animal nature of man have been added, by 
a bountiful Creator, moral sentiments and reflecting facul- 
ties, which not only place him above all other creatures on 
earth, but constitute him a different being from any of them, 
a rational and accountable creature. These faculties are his 
best and highest gifts, and the sources of his purest and 
intensest pleasures. They lead him directly to the great ob- 
jects of his existence, — obedience to God, and love towards 
his fellow-men. But this peculiarity attends them, that 
while his animal faculties act powerfully of themselves, his 
rational faculties require to be cultivated, exercised, and 
instructed, before they will yield their full harvest of enjoy- 
ment. 

The Creator has so arranged the external world as to hold 
forth every possible inducement to man to cultivate his 
higher powers, nay almost to constrain him to do so. The 
philosophic mind, in surveying the world as prepared for 
the reception of the human race, perceives in external na- 
ture, a vast assemblage of stupendous powers, too great for 
the feeble hand of man entirely to control, but kindly sub- 
jected, within certain limits, to the influence of his will. 
Man is introduced on earth, apparently helpless and unpro- 
vided for as a homeless stranger ; but the soil on which he 
treads is endowed with a thousand capabilities of production, 
which require only to be excited by his intelligence, to yield 
him the most ample returns. The impetuous torrent rolls 
its waters to the main ; but as it dashes over the mountain- 
cliff, the human hand is capable of withdrawing it from its 
course, and rendering its powers subservient to his will. 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 7 

Ocean extends over half the globe her liquid plain, in which 
no path appears, and the rude winds oft lift her waters to the 
sky ; but there the skill of man may launch the strong-knit 
bark, spread forth the canvass to the gale, and make the 
trackless deep a highway through the world. In such a 
state of things, knowledge is truly power ; and it is highly 
important to human beings to become acquainted with the 
constitution and relations of every object around them, that 
they may discover its capabilities of ministering to their own 
advantage. Farther, where these physical energies are too 
great to be controlled, man has received intelligence by which 
he may observe their course, and accommodate his conduct 
to their influence. This capacity of adaptation is a valuable 
substitute for the power of regulating them by his will. He 
cannot arrest the sun in its course, so as to avert the wintry 
storms, and cause perpetual spring to bloom around him ; 
but, by the proper exercise of his intelligence and corporeal 
energies, he is able to foresee the approach of bleak skies and 
rude winds, and to place himself in safety from their injurious 
effects. These powers of controlling nature, and of accom- 
modating his conduct to its course, are the direct results of 
his rational faculties ; and in proportion to their cultivation 
is his sway extended. Man, while ignorant, is in a helpless 
condition. But let him put forth his proper human capa- 
cities, and he then finds himself invested with the power to 
rear, to build, to fabricate, and to store up provisions ; and by 
availing nimself of these resources, and accommodating his 
conduct to the course of nature's laws, he is able to smile in 
safety beside the cheerful hearth, when the elements main- 
tain their fiercest war abroad. 

Again : We are surrounded by countless beings, inferior 
and equal to ourselves, whose qualities yield us the greatest 
happiness, or bring upon us the bitterest evil, according as 
we affect them agreeably or disagreeably by our conduct. To 
draw forth all their excellencies, and cause them to diffuse 
joy around us — to avoid touching the harsher springs of 
their constitution, and bringing painful discord to our ears — 
it is indispensably necessary that we know the nature of our 
fellows, and act with a habitual regard to the relations esta- 
blished by the Creator betwixt ourselves and them. 

Man, ignorant and uncivilized, is a ferocious, sensual, and 
superstitious savage. The woiid affords some enjoyments 



8 VIEW OP THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

to his animal feelings, but it confounds his moral and in- 
tellectual faculties. External nature exhibits to his mind a 
mighty chaos of events, and a dread display of power. The 
chain of causation appears too intricate to be unravelled, and 
the power too stupendous to be controlled. Order and 
beauty, indeed, occasionally gleam forth to his eye from de- 
tached portions of creation, and seem to promise happiness 
and joy ; but more frequently, clouds and darkness brood 
over the scene, and disappoint his fondest expectations. 
Evil seems so mixed up with good, that he regards it as 
either its direct product, or its inseparable accompaniment. 
Nature is never contemplated with a clear conception of its 
adaptation to the purpose of promoting the true enjoyment 
of the human race, or with a well founded confidence in the 
wisdom and benevolence of its Author. Man, when civilized 
and illuminated by knowledge, on the other hand, discovers 
in the objects and occurrences around him, a scheme beau- 
tifully arranged for the gratification of his whole powers, 
animal, moral, and intellectual ; he recognises in himself 
the intelligent and accountable subject of an all-bountiful 
Creator, and in joy and gladness desires to study the 
Creator's works, to ascertain his laws, and to yield to them 
a steady and a willing obedience. Without undervaluing 
the pleasures of his animal nature, he tastes the higher, more 
refined, and more enduring delights of his moral and intel- 
lectual capacities, and he then calls aloud for education as 
indispensable to the full enjoyment of his rational powers. 

If this representation of the condition of the human being 
on earth be correct, we perceive clearly the unspeakable ad- 
vantage of applying our minds to gain knowledge of our own 
constitution and that of external nature, and of regulating 
our conduct according to rules drawn from the information 
acquired. Our constitution and our position equally imply, 
that the grand object of our existence is, not that we should 
remain contented with the pleasures of mere animal life, 
but that we should take the dignified and far more delightful 
station of moral and rational occupants of this lower world. 

If the physical history of the globe clearly indicates pro- 
gression in an advancing series of changes, the civil history 
of man equally proclaims the march, although often vacil- 
lating and slow, of moral and intellectual improvement. 
To avoid too extensive an inquiry, unsuitable to an intro- 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 9 

ductory discourse, let us confine our attention to the aspects 
presented by society in our native country. 

At the time of the Roman invasion, the inhabitants of 
Britain lived as savages, and appeared in painted skins. 
After the Norman conquest, one part of the nation was 
placed in the condition of serfs, and condemned to labour 
like beasts of burden, while another devoted themselves to 
war, they fought battles during the day, and in the night 
probably dreamed of bloodshed and broils. Next came the 
age of chivalry. These generations severally believed their 
own condition to be the permanent and inevitable lot of man. 
Now, however, have come the present arrangements of so- 
ciety, in which millions of men are shut up in cotton and 
other manufactories for ten or twelve hours a-day ; others 
labour under ground in mines ; others plough the fields ; 
while thousands of higher rank pass their whole lives in 
idleness and dissipation. The elementary principles, both 
of mind and body, were the same in our painted ancestors, 
in their chivalrous descendants, and in us, their shopkeep- 
ing, manufacturing, and money-gathering children. Yet 
how different the external circumstances of the individuals 
of these several generations ! If, in the savage state, the 
internal faculties of man were in harmony among them- 
selves, and if his external condition was in accordance with 
them, he must then have enjoyed all the happiness that his 
nature admitted of, and must have erred when he changed ; — 
if the institutions and customs of the age of chivalry were 
calculated to gratify his whole nature harmoniously, he must 
have been unhappy as a savage, and must be miserable 
now ; — if his present condition be the perfection of his na- 
ture, he must have been far from enjoyment, both as a sav- 
age and as a feudal warrior ; — and if none of these conditions 
have been in accordance with his constitution, he must still 
have his happiness to seek. Every age, accordingly, has 
testified that it was not in possession of contentment ; and 
the question presents itself, if human nature has received a 
definite constitution, and if one arrangement of external 
circumstances be more suited to yield it gratification than 
another, what are that constitution and that arrangement 7 
No one among the philosophers has succeeded in inform- 
ing us. — If we in Brittain have not reached the limits of 
attainable perfection, what are we next to attempt ? Are 



10 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

we and our posterity to spin and weave, build ships, and 
speculate in commerce, as the highest occupations to which 
human nature can aspire, and persevere in these labours till 
the end of time 1 If not, who shall guide the helm in our 
future voyage on the ocean of existence 1 and by what chart 
of philosophy shall our steersman be directed 1 The Brit- 
ish are here cited as a type of mankind at large ; for in every 
age and every clime, similar races have been run, and 
with similar conclusions. Only one answer can be returned 
to these inquiries. Man is evidently a progressive being ; 
and the Creator, having designed a higher path for him than 
for the lower creatures, has given him intellect to discover 
his own nature and that of external objects, and left him, by 
the exercise of that intellect, to find out for himself the 
method of placing his faculties in harmony among them- 
selves, and in accordance with the external world. Time 
and experience are necessary to accomplish these ends, and 
history exhibits the human race only in a state of progress 
towards the full development of their powers, and the 
attainment of rational enjoyment. 

As long as man remained ignorant of his own nature, he 
could not, of design, form his institutions in accordance 
with it. Until his own faculties became the subjects of his 
observation, and their relations the object of his reflection, 
they operated as mere instincts. He adopted savage habits, 
because his animal propensities were not at first directed 
by the moral sentiments, or enlightened by reflection. He 
next assumed the condition of the barbarian, because his 
higher powers had made some advance, but had not yet 
attained supremacy ; and he now manufactures, because his 
constructive faculties and intellect have given him power 
over physical nature, while his avarice and ambition are 
predominant, and are gratified by such avocations. Not 
one of these changes, however, has been adopted from de- 
sign, or from perception of its suitableness to the nature of 
man. He has been ill at ease in them all ; but it does not 
follow that he shall continue for ever equally ignorant of 
his nature, and equally incapable of framing institutions to 
harmonize with it. The simple facts, that the Creator has 
bestowed on man reason, capable of discovering his own na- 
ture, and its relations to external objects ; that He has left 
him to apply it in framing suitable institutions to ensure his 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 11 

happiness : that, nevertheless, man has hitherto been igiw . 
rant of his nature and of its relations ; and that in con^e 
quence, his modes of life have never been adopted from en 
lightened views of his whole capacities and qualities, bu 
sprung up from the instinctive ascendency of one blind pro- 
pensity or another, — warrant us in saying, that a new era 
will begin, when man shall be enabled to study his consti 
tution and its relations with success ; and that the future 
may exhibit him assuming his station as a rational creature, 
pursuing his own happiness with intelligence and design, 
and at length attaining to higher gratification of his whole 
faculties than any which he has hitherto enjoyed. 

The inquiry next naturally occurs, what has been the 
cause of the human race remaining for so many ages unae* 
quainted with their own nature and its relations 1 The 
answer is, that, before the discovery of the functions of the 
brain, they did not know how to study these subjects in a 
manner calculated to attain to true principles and practical 
results. The philosophy of man was cultivated as a specu- 
lative and not as an inductive science ; and even when at- 
tempts were made at induction, the manner in which they 
were conducted was at variance with the fundamental re- 
quisites of a sound philosophy.* In consequence, even the 
most enlightened nations have never possessed any true 
philosophy of mind, but have been bewildered amidst innu- 
merable contradictory theories. 

This deplorable condition of the philosophy of human 
nature is strikingly and eloquently described by Mons. de 
Bonald, in a sentence translated by Mr. Dugald Stewart, in 
his Preliminary Dissertation to the Encyclopaedia Britan- 
nica : " Diversity of doctrine," says he, " has increased from 
age to age, with the number of masters, and with the pro- 
gress of knowledge ; and Europe, which at present pos- 
sesses libraries filled with philosophical works, and which 
reckons up almost as many philosophers as writers ; poor in 
the midst of so much wealth, and uncertain, with the aid of 
all its guides, which road it should follow ; Europe, the cen- 
tre and focus of all the lights of the world, has yet its phi- 
losophy only in expectation." 

In our own country two views of the constitution of the 

*Sce System of Phrenology, Tuird Edition, p. 40. 



12 VIEW OP THE C0XSTI1UTI0N OF HUMAN NATURE, 

world and of human nature have long been prevalent, dif- 
fering widely from each other, and which, if legitimately 
followed out, would lead to distinct practical results. The 
one is, that the world, including both the physical and moral 
departments, contains within itself the elements of improve- 
ment, which time will evolve and bring to maturity ; it hav- 
ing been constituted by the Creator on the principle of a 
progressive system, like the acorn in reference to the oak. 
This hypothesis ascribes to the power and wisdom of the 
Divine Being the whole phenomena which nature, animate 
and inanimate, exhibits ; because in conferring on each part 
the specific qualities and constitution which belong to it, and 
in placing it in the circumstances in which it is found, he 
is assumed to have designed, from the first, the whole results 
which these qualities, constitution, and circumstances, are 
calculated in time to produce. There is no countenance 
given to atheism by this theory. On the contrary, it affords 
the richest and most comprehensive field imaginable, for tra- 
cing the evidence of Divine power, wisdom, and goodness 
in creation. 

The other hypothesis is, that the world was perfect at 
first, but fell into derangement, continues in disorder, and 
does not contain within itself the elements of its own rec- 
tification. 

If the former view be sound, the first object of man, as 
an intelligent being in quest of happiness, must be to study 
the elements of external nature and their capabilities ; the 
elementary qualities of his own nature, and their applica- 
tions ; and the relationship between these. His second ob- 
ject will be to discover and carry into effect the conditions, — 
physical, moral, and intellectual, — which, in virtue of this 
constitution, require to be realized before the fullest enjoy- 
ment of which he is capable can be attained. 

According to the second view of creation, no good can be 
expected from the evolution of nature's elements, these 
being all essentially disordered; and human improvement 
and enjoyment must be derived chiefly from spiritual influ- 
ences. If the one hypothesis be sound, man must fulfil the 
natural conditions requisite to the existence of religion, mo- 
rality, and happiness, before he can reap full benefit from 
religious truth : according to the other, he must believe 
aright in religion, and be the subject of spiritual influence* 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECT8. 13 

independent of natural causes, before he can become capable 
of any virtue or enjoyment ; in short, according to it, sci- 
ence, philosophy, and all arrangements of the physical, 
moral, and intellectual elements of nature, are subordinate 
in their effects on human happiness on earth, to religious 
faith. 

It appears to me extremely difficult to reconcile these con- 
flicting views. 

The theologians who condemned the natural world, lived 
in an age when there was no sound philosophy, and almost 
no knowledge of physical science ; they were unavoidably 
ignorant of the elementary qualities of human nature, and 
of the influence of organization on the mental powers — -the 
great link which connects the moral and physical worlds. 
They were unacquainted with the relations subsisting be- 
tween the mind and external nature ; and could not by pos- 
sibility divine, to what extent individuals and society were 
capable of being improved by natural means. In the his- 
tory of man, they had read chiefly of misery and crime, and 
had in their own age beheld much of both. They were, 
therefore, naturally led to form a low estimate of human 
nature, and to expect little good from the development of 
its inherent capabilities. These views appear to me to have 
influenced the interpretations of scripture which they adopt- 
ed : and these, having once been entwined with religious 
sentiments, have descended from generation to generation : — 
in consequence, persons of sincere piety have, for several 
centuries, been induced to look down on this world as a 
wilderness abounding with briars, weeds, and noxious 
things, — and to direct their chief attention, not to the study 
of its elements and their relations, in the hope of reducing 
them to order, but to enduring the disorder with patience 
and resignation, and to securing, by faith and penitence, sal- 
vation in a future life. It has never been with them a prac- 
tical principle, that human nature itself may be vastly im- 
proved in its moral and intellectual capacities, by those 
means which physiology and phrenology have recently open- 
ed up to us ; or that human nature and the external world 
are adjusted on the principle of favouring the development 
of the higher powers of our minds ; or that the study of 
the constitution of nature is indispensable to human im- 
provement : or that this world and its professions and pur- 
2 



14 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE, 

suits might be rendered favourable to virtue by searching 
out the natural qualities of its elements, their relationship, 
and the moral plan on which God has constituted and governs 
it. Some philosophers and divines having failed to discover 
a consistent order or plan in the moral world, have rashly 
concluded that none such exists, or that it is inscrutable. 
It appears never to have occurred to them that it is impos- 
sible to comprehend a whole system without becoming ac- 
quainted with its parts : — though ignorant of the physiology 
of man, of mental philosophy, of the philosophy of exter- 
nal nature, and of their relations, these authors have not 
perceived that this extensive ignorance of the details render- 
ed it impossible for them to comprehend the plan of the 
whole. Hence they have involved themselves in contra- 
dictions ; for while it has been a leading principle with them, 
that enjoyment in a future state is to be the consequence 
of the believer attaining to a holy and pious frame of mind 
in this life, they have represented the constitution of the 
world to be so unfavourable to piety and virtue, that men in 
general, who continue attached to it, cannot attain to this 
right frame of spirit, or act habitually in consistency with 
it. They have not had philosophy sufficient to enable them 
to perceive that man must live in society to be either virtuous 
useful, or happy ; that the social atmosphere is to the mind 
what air is to the lungs ; and that while an individual can 
not exist to virtuous ends out of society, he cannot exist in 
a right frame of mind in it, if the moral atmosphere with 
which he is surrounded be deeply contaminated with vice 
and error. Individual merchants, for example, cannot act 
habitually on Christian principles, if the maxims of their 
trade be not Christian ; and if the world be so unfavourably 
constituted that it does not admit of the rules of trade be- 
coming Christian, then active life and practical religion are 
naturally opposed to each other. Divines have laboriously 
recommended spiritual exercises as means of improvement 
in this life and of salvation in the next ; but have rarely 
dealt with the philosophy of this world, or attempted its 
rectification, so as to render these exercises truly efficacious. 
Their minds have been infected with the first great error, 
that this world is irremediably defective in its constitution, 
and that human hope must be concentrated chiefly on the 
next. This may be attributed to the premature formation 



ANO ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 15 

of a system of theology in the dawn of civilization, before 
the qualities of the physical world, and the elements of the 
moral world, and their relationship were known ; and to 
erroneous interpretations of scripture, in consequence, 
partly, of that ignorance. 

Now, if the discovery of the philosophy of mind, found- 
ed on the physiology of the brain, is to operate at all in 
favour of human improvement, one of the most striking 
effects which it will produce, will be the lifting up of the 
veil which has so long concealed the natural world, and its 
capabilities and importance, from the eyes of divines. To 
all practical ends connected with theology, the philosophy 
of nature might as well not exist : with few exceptions, the 
sermons preached a century ago are equal, if not superior, 
in sense and suitableness to human nature, to those delivered 
yesterday ; and yet, in the interval, the human mind has 
made vast advances in knowledge of the works of creation. 
Divines have frequently applied scientific discoveries in prov- 
ing the existence and developing the character of the Deity ; 
but they have failed in applying either of the discoveries 
themselves, or the knowledge of the Divine character ob- 
tained by means of them, to the construction of any system 
of mental philosophy, capable of combining harmoniously 
with religion, and promoting the improvement of the human 
race. 

This, however, Phrenology will enable them one day to 
do. In surveying the world itself, the phrenologist perceives 
that the Creator has bestowed definite qualities on the human 
mind, and on external objects, and established certain rela- 
tions between them ; that the mental faculties have been in- 
cessantly operating according to their inherent tendencies, 
generally aiming at good, always desiring it, but often mis- 
sing it through pure ignorance and blindness, yet capable 
of attaining it when enlightened and properly directed. 
The baneful effects of ignorance are every where apparent, 
Three-fourths of the mental faculties have direct reference 
to this world, and their functions appear to have no intel- 
ligible relation to another — sueh are amativeness, philopro- 
genitiveness, combativeness, destructiveness, constructive- 
ness, acquisitiveness, secretiveness, and others; while the 
remaining fourth are calculated to have reference at once to 
thi* life and to a higher state of existence — such are benevo- 



16 VIEW UF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATUKB, 

lence, ideality, wonder, veneration, hope, conscientiousness, 
and intellect. While the philosophy of mind continued a 
purely abstract theory, moralists and divines enjoyed an un- 
limited privilege, of which they largely availed themselves, 
of ascribing or denying to human nature whatever qualities 
best suited their several systems ; but now the case is diffe- 
rent. Organs cannot be added to or displaced from the 
brain by the fancy or the logic of contending disputants or 
sects ; and philosophers and divines must hereafter study 
human nature as it exists, and accommodate their views to 
its actual qualities and relations. To guide and successfully 
apply the former class of faculties to the promotion of hu- 
man happiness, it appears indispensable that the faculties 
themselves, — the physical conditions on which their strength 
and weakness, inertness and vivacity, depend, — the rela- 
tions established between them and the external world, which 
is the grand theatre of their action, — and, finally, the rela- 
tion between them and the superior faculties, which are 
destined to direct them, should be known; and yet, scarcely 
any thing is known in a philosophical and practical sense, 
on these points, by the people at large. If I am correct in 
saying that these faculties, by their constitution, have refer- 
ence to this world alone, then useful knowledge for their 
guidance will be afforded by the philosophy of this world ; 
and the wisdom which is to reduce them to order, will re- 
ceive important aid from studying the constitution which it 
has pleased the Creator to bestow on them, and the relations, 
which he has seen proper to institute between them and 
the other departments of his works. His wisdom and good- 
ness will be found to pervade them. He has bestowed on 
us intellect to discover his will, and sentiments disposing us 
to obey it, in whatever record its existence is inscribed ; yet 
little of this knowledge is taught to the people by divines. 
Knowledge of the constitution, relations, and capabilities 
of sublunary things and beings, is indispensable also to the 
proper exercise and direction of the superior powers of the 
mind. In all ages, practical men have been engaged foi 
three-fourths of their time in pursuits calculated to gratify 
the faculties which have reference to this world alone ; but, 
unfortunately, the remaining fourth of their time has not been 
devoted to pursuits bearing reference to their higher facul- 
ties. Through want of intellectual education, they have 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJEgTS. 17 

been incapable of deriving pleasure from observing nature, 
and have not been furnished with ideas to enable them to 
think. Owing to the barbarism which pervaded society in 
general, there has been no moral atmosphere in which their 
superior sentiments could play. Ambition, that powerful 
stimulant in social life, has not been directed to moral objects, 
but generally the reverse. The hours, therefore, which 
ought to have been dedicated to the improvement of the 
higher portion of their faculties, were either devoted to the 
pursuit of gain, sensual pleasure, or ambition, or spent in 
mere trifling amusements and relaxation. There was no de- 
cided onward purpose of moral and intellectual advancement 
abroad in the secular occupations of society ; and the divines 
who formed public opinion, so far from discovering that this 
disorder was not inherent in the constitution of nature, — and 
that Christianity, in teaching the doctrine of the supremacy 
of the moral faculties, necessarily implied the practicability 
of a state of society founded on that principle, — fell into the 
opposite error, and represented the world as deranged in all 
its parts, and incapable of rectification by the development of 
its own elements ; and thereby added strength and perma- 
nence to the evils originating in ignorance and unguided 
passion. 

I am far from casting blame on the excellent individuals 
who fell into these mistakes : such errors were inevitable at 
the time in which they lived, and with the lights which they 
possessed ; but I point them out as imperfections which ought 
to be removed. 

The late Earl of Bridgewater died in February 1829, and 
left the sum of £8000, which, by his will, he directed the 
President of the Royal Society of London to apply in paying 
any person or persons to be selected by him, u to write, print, 
and publish one thousand copies of a work 4 On the Power, 
Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested jn the 
Creation ;' illustrating such work by all reasonable argu- 
ments, as, for instance, the variety and formation of God's 
creatures in the anima*l, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; 
the effect of digestion, and thereby of conversion ; the con- 
struction of the hand of man, and an infinite variety of other 
arguments ; as also by discoveries , ancient and modern, in 
arts, sciences, and the whole extent of literature." The 
President of the Royal Society called in the aid of the Arch* 
2* 



18 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

bishop of Canterbury and of the Bishop of London, and with 
their advice nominated eight gentlemen to write eight trea- 
tises on different branches of this great subject. 

One of the objects of the Earl of Bridge water appears to 
have been to ascertain what the character of external nature 
and the capacities of the human mind really are, and what ia 
the adaptation of the latter to the external world ; questions 
of vast importance in themselves, and which can be 6olved 
only by direct, bold, and unbiassed appeals to Nature herself. 
This subject was committed to Dr. Chalmers. 

The first inquiry that ought naturally to have been pursued 
in the execution of this object was, " What is the constitu- 
tion of the human mind ]" because, before we can success- 
fully trace the adaptation of two objects to each other, we 
must be acquainted with each itself. But Dr. Chalmers and 
all the other authors of the Bridgewater Treatises have neg- 
lected this branch of inquiry. They disdained to acknow- 
ledge Phrenology as the philosophy of mind, yet have not 
brought forward any other system. Indeed they have not 
attempted to assign to human nature any definite or intelli- 
gible constitution. In consequence, they appear to me to 
have thrown extremely little new light on the moral govern- 
ment of the world. 

In the following work, the first edition of which was pub- 
lished in 1828, before the Earl of Bridgewater's death, I 
have endeavoured to avoid this inconsistency. Having been 
convinced, after minute and long continued observation, that 
Phrenology is the true philosophy of mind, I have assumed 
it as the basis of my reasoning. In this inquiry, it is indis- 
pensably necessary to found on some system of mental phi- 
losophy, in order to obtain one of the elements of the com- 
parison ; but the reader, if he chooses, may regard the phre- 
nological views as hypothetical in the mean time, and judge 
of them by the result. Or he may attempt to substitute in 
their place any better system with which he is acquainted, 
and try how far it will successfully conduct him. 

In the next place, in instituting the comparison in ques- 
tion, I have brought into view, and endeavoured to substan- 
tiate and apply, a doctrine, which, so far as I have yet been 
able to discover, is the key to the true theory of the divine 
government of the world, but which has not hitherto been 
duly appreciated, — namely, the independent kxistkxvk 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 19 

AND OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS OF CREATION. The 

natural laws may be divided into three great and intellectual 
classes, — Physical, Organic, and Moral; and the peculiarity 
of the new doctrine is, its inculcating that these operate 
independently of each other ; that each requires obedience to 
itself; that each, in its own specific wa)>-, rewards obedience 
and punishes disobedience ; and that human beings are 
happy in proportion to the extent to which they place them- 
selves in accordance with all of these divine institutions. 
For example, the most pious and benevolent missionaries 
sailing to civilize and christianize the heathen, may, if they 
embark in an unsound ship, be drowned by disobeying a 
physical law, without their destruction being averted by 
their morality. On the other hand, if the greatest monsters 
of iniquity were embarked in a stanch and strong ship, and 
managed it well, they might, and, on the general principles 
of the government of the world, they would escape drown- 
ing, in circumstances exactly similar to those which would 
send the missionaries to the bottom. There appears some- 
thing inscrutable in these results, if only the moral qualities 
of the men be contemplated but if the principle be adopt- 
ed that ships float in virtue of a purely physical law, — and 
that the physical and moral laws operate independently, 
each in its own sphere, — the consequences appear in a to- 
tally different light. 

In like manner, the organic laws operate independently ; 
and hence, one individual who has inherited a fine bodily 
constitution from his parents, and observes the rules of tem- 
perance and exercise, will enjoy robust health, although he 
may cheat, lie, blaspheme, and destroy his fellow men ; 
while another, if he have inherited a feeble constitution, and 
disregard the laws of diet and exercise, will suffer pain and 
sickness, although he may be a paragon of every christian 
virtue. These results are frequently observed to occur in 
the world ; and on such occasions the darkness and inscru- 
table perplexity of the ways of Providence are generally 
moralised upon, or a future life is called in as the scene in 
which these crooked paths are to be rendered straight. But 
if my views be correct, the Divine wisdom and goodness are 
abundantly conspicuous in these events ; for by this distinct 
operation of the organic and moral laws, order is preserved 
in creation, and, as will afterward be shown, the means of 



$0 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURB, 

discipline and improvement are afforded to all human facul- 
ties. 

The moral and intellectual laws also have an independent 
operation. The man who cultivates his intellect, and ha- 
bitually obeys the precepts of Christianity, will enjoy with- 
in himself a fountain of moral and intellectual happiness, 
which is the appropriate reward of that obedience. By 
these means he will be rendered more capable of studying, 
comprehending, and obeying, the physical and organic laws, 
of placing himself in harmony with the whole order of 
creation, and of attaining the highest degree of perfection 
and reaping the highest degree of happiness, of which hu- 
man nature in this world is susceptible. In short, whenever 
we apply the principle of the independent operation of the 
natural laws, the apparent confusion of the moral govern- 
ment of the world disappears. 

These views will be better understood and appreciated 
after perusing the subsequent chapters, the object of which 
is to unfold and apply them ; the aim of these introductory 
remarks being merely to prepare the reader for travelling 
over the more abstruse portions of the work with a clearer 
perception of their scope and tendency. The work itself 
has now been before the public for six years, and I have 
seen no criticism which has shaken my conviction of the 
substantial truth of the principles maintained in it. Of its 
value as a contribution to the philosophy of human nature, 
the public are the only legitimate judges. 

Some well-meaning individuals have imagined that this 
work is hostile to religion, because it is confined to principles 
which can be discovered by observation and reflection, and 
to human conduct in this life without direct reference to a 
future state ; but such ideas are entirely unfounded. Hu- 
man nature and the external world have both proceeded from 
the Creator, and it is impossible, in interpreting their con- 
stitution aright, to arrive at any conclusions at variance with 
correct interpretations of scripture. It is argued, indeed, 
by some theologians, that the human faculties are no longer 
in the condition in which they were created, and that hence 
no sound philosophy can be deduced from studying their 
manifestations. (Christian Ethics, by Ralph Wardlaw, D. D. 
p. 40 ) I respectfully reply, that man did not make the cere- 
bral organs which he now possesses, nor bestow on them 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 21 

their functions. Both organs and functions are as assuredly 
the direct gifts of the Creator, as is the eye, the ear, or the 
stomach. The science of optics is never questioned by any 
person who understands it, on the ground that the eye (on 
the structure, properties, and relations of which it depends,) 
is not now in the condition in which it was created. Yet 
to do this would be as reasonable as to deny the truth and 
authority of a philosophy of mind derived from correct ob- 
servations on the constitution and relations of the mental 
faculties and organs. It is presumable that the same Divine 
power, wisdom, and goodness, which instituted the eye, and 
adapted its structure to light, presided also over the institu- 
tion and adaptations of the internal organs of the mind. If 
a theologian were to maintain that these organs, or several 
of them, were bestowed on man in consequence of sin, or 
from any other cause, philosophers would remain silent to 
such a proposition ; because they do not inquire into the 
motives which induced the Creator to confer on man the or- 
gans and faculties which he possesses. They limit their 
investigations to objects that exist, and their relations and 
uses. But on the ground that organs and faculties have 
been given by the Creator, they are entitled to maintain, 
that a philosophy of morals correctly deduced from their con- 
stitution must accord with all correct interpretations of scrip- 
ture, otherwise religion can have no substantial foundation. 
If two sound interpretations of the divine will, as recorded 
in creation and in scripture, can by possibility contradict 
each other, we can have no confidence in the moral Gover- 
nor of the world. As, then, all real philosophy and all true 
religion must harmonize, there will be a manifest advantage 
in cultivating each by itself, till its. full dimensions, limits, 
and applications shall be brought clearly to light. We may 
then advantageously compare them, and use the one as a 
means of elucidating or correcting our views of the other. 
To the best of my knowledge, there is not one practical 
result of the natural laws expounded in the subsequent pages, 
which does not harmonize precisely with the moral precepts 
of the New Testament. Indeed, this work has been charac- 
terized by some individuals as the philosophy of Christian 
morality, because they regard it as exhibiting the natural 
foundations of the admirable precepts which in the New- 
Testament are taught only dogmatically. It is objected. 



22 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

however, that, by omitting the sanction of future reward 
and punishment, this treatise leaves out the highest, best, and 
most efficacious class of motives to virtuous conduct. This 
objection is founded on a misapprehension of the object of 
the book. It is my purpose to show, that the rewards and 
punishments of human actions are infinitely more complete, 
certain, and efficacious, in this life, than is generally believed ; 
but by no means to interfere with the sanctions to virtue 
afforded by the prospect of future retribution. It appears 
to me that every action which is morally wrong in reference 
to a future life, is equally wrong and inexpedient with rela- 
tion to this world; and that it is of essential advantage to 
virtue to prove this to be the case. Having observed a great 
tendency in many religious men to overlook the importance 
of understanding the moral administration of this world, 
and to turn their attention too exclusively to the next, I 
have endeavoured to present the administration of the pre- 
sent world in a clear light, calculated to arrest attention, 
and to draw towards it that degree of consideration to which 
it is justly entitled. This proceeding will be recognised as 
the more necessary, if one principle largely insisted on in 
the following pages shall be admitted to be sound, viz. that 
religion operates on the human mmd, in subordination, and 
not in contradiction, to its natural constitution. If this 
view be well founded, it will be indispensable that all the na- 
tural conditions required by the human constitution as pre- 
liminaries to moral and religious conduct be complied with, 
before any purely religious teaching can produce its full 
effects. If, for example, an ill-constituted brain be unfa- 
vourable to the appreciation and practice of religious truth, 
it is not an unimportant inquiry, whether any, and what, 
influence can be exercised by human means in improving 
the size and proportions of the mental organs. If certain 
physical circumstances and occupations, — such as insuffi- 
cient food and clothing, unwholesome workshops and dwel- 
ling-plaees, diet, and severe and long protracted labour, — 
have a natural tendency to blunt all the higher feelings and 
faculties of the mind, in consequence of their influence on 
the nervous system in general, and the brain in particular,— 
and if religious emotions cannot be experienced with full 
effect by individuals so situate, — the ascertainment, with a 
view to removal, of the nature, causes, and effects, of these 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. £3 

impediments to holiness, is not a matter of indifference. 
This view has not been systematically adopted and pursued 
by the religious instructors of mankind in any age, or any 
country, and, in my humble opinion, for this sole reason, 
that the state of moral and physical science did not enable 
them either to appreciate its importance, or to carry it into ef- 
fect. By presenting nature in all her simplicity and strength, 
a new impulse and direction may perhaps be given to their 
understandings; and they may be induced to consider 
whether their universally confessed failure to render men as 
virtuous and happy as they desired, may not to some extent 
have arisen from their non-fulfilment of the natural condi- 
tions instituted by the Creator as preliminaries to success. 
They have complained of war waged, openly or secretly, by 
philosophy against religion ; but they have not duly con- 
sidered whether religion itself warrants them in treating 
philosophy and all its dictates with neglect in their instruc- 
tion of the people. True philosophy is a revelation of the 
Divine will manifested in creation ; it harmonizes with all 
truth, and cannot with impunity be neglected. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON NATURAL LAWS. 

In natural science, three subjects of inquiry may be dis- 
tinguished : 1st, What exists 7 2dly, What is the purpose 
or design of what exists 1 and, 3dly y Why was what exists 
designed for such uses as it evidently subserves 1 

It is matter of fact, for instance, that arctic regions and 
the torrid zone exist, — that a certain kind of moss is abund- 
ant in Lapland in winter, — -that the rein-deer feeds on it, 
and enjoys health and vigour in situations where most other 
animals would die ; that camels exist in Africa, — that they 
have broad hooves, and stomachs fitted to retain water for a 
considerable time, — and that they flourish amid arid tracts 
of sand, where the rein-deer would hardly live for a day. 
All this falls under the inquiry, What exists 7 



S4 OX NATURAL LAWS. 

In contemplating these facts, the understanding is na- 
turally led to infer that one object of the Lapland moss is to 
feed the rein-deer, and that one purpose of the deer is to 
assist man ; and that broad feet have been given to the 
camel to allow it to walk on sand, and a retentive stomach 
to fit it for arid places in which water is found only at wide 
intervals. These conclusions result from inquiries into the 
uses or purposes of what exists ; and such inquiries consti- 
tute a legitimate exercise of the human intellect. 

But, Sdly, we may ask, Why were the physical elements 
of nature created such as they are 1 Why were summer, 
autumn, spring, and winter introduced] Why were ani- 
mals formed of organized matter? WTiy were trackless 
wastes of snow and burning sand called into existence ! 
These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it 
is ; or into the will of the Deity in creation. 

Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first 
inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second ; but it 
may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the 
third. My investigations are confined to the first and se- 
cond, and I do not discuss the third. 

It cannot be too much insisted on, that the Creator has 
bestowed definite constitutions on physical nature and on 
man and animals, and that they are regulated by fixed laws. 
A law, in the common acceptation, denotes a rule of action ; 
it implies a subject which acts, and that the actions or 
phenomena which that subject exhibits take place in an 
established and regular manner ; and this is the sense in 
which I shall use it, when treating of physical substances 
and beings. Water, for instance, when at the level of the 
sea, and combined with that portion of heat indicated by 
32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, freezes or becomes solid ; 
when combined with the portion denoted by 212° of that 
instrument, it rises into vapour or steam. Here water and 
heat are the substances, and the freezing and rising in 
vapour are the appearances or phenomena presented by 
them ; and when we say that these take plaee according to 
a Law of Nature, we mean only that these modes of action 
appear, to our intellects, to be established in the very con 
stitution of the water and heat, and in their natural relation- 
ship to each other ; and that the processes of freezing and 
rising in vapour are constant appearances, when they arc 



ON NATCRAI, LAWS. 25 

combined in these proportions, other conditions being the 
same. 

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st, That all 
substances and beings have received a definite natural con- 
stitution ; 2dly, That every mode of action, which is said to 
take place according to a natural law, is inherent in the 
constitution of the substance or being ; and, Zdiy, That the 
mode of action described is universal and invariable, where- 
ever and whenever the substances or beings are found in 
the same condition. For example, water, at the level of 
the sea, freezes and boils at the same temperature, in China, 
in France, in Peru, and in England ; and there is no ex- 
ception to the regularity with which it exhibits these 
appearances, when all its other conditions are the same. 
This last qualification, however, must, constantly be attend- 
ed to in all departments of science. If water be carried to 
the top of a mountain 20,000 feet high, it will boil at a 
lower temperature than 212° ; but this depends on its re- 
lationship to the air, and takes place also according to fixed 
and invariable principles. The air exerts a great pressure 
on water. At the level of the sea the pressure is every 
where nearly the same, and in that situation the freezing 
and boiling points correspond all over the world ; but on 
the top of a high mountain the pressure is much less, and 
the vapour, not being held down by so great a power of re- 
sistance, rises at a lower temperature than 212°. But this 
change of appearances does not indicate a change in the 
constitution of the water and the heat, but only a variation 
in the circumstances in which they are placed ; and hence 
it is not correct to say, that water boiling on the tops of 
high mountains, at a lower temperature than 212°, is an 
exception to the general law of nature. There are no ex- 
ceptions to the laws of nature ; for the Creator is too wise 
and too powerful to make imperfect or inconsistent arrange- 
ments. The error is in the human mind inferring the law 
to be, that water boils at 212° in every altitude ; when the 
real law is only that it boils at that temperature, at the level 
of the sea, in all countries, — and that it boils at a lower 
temperature the higher it is carried, because then the pres- 
sure of the atmosphere is less. 

Intelligent beings are capable of observing nature and of 
modifying their actions. By means of their faculties, the 
3 



26 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

laws inpressed by the Creator on physical substances become 
known to them ; and, when perceived, constitute laws to 
them, by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it 
is a physical law, that boiling water destroys the muscular 
and nervous systems of man. This is the result purely of 
the constitution of the body, and the relation between it and 
and heat ; and man cannot alter or suspend the law. But 
whenever the relation, and the consequences of disregarding 
\t, are perceived, the mind is prompted to avoid infringe- 
ment, in order to shun the torture attached by the Creator 
co the decomposition of the human body by heat. 

Similar views have long been taught by philosophers and 
divines. Bishop Butler, in particular, says : — " An Au- 
thor of Nature being supposed, it is not so much a deduc- 
tion of reason as a matter of experience, that we are thus 
under his government : under his government in the same 
sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates. 
Because the annexing pleasure to some actions, and pain 
lo others, in our power to do or forbear, and giving notice 
of this appointment beforehand to those whom it concerns, 
is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the 
pleasure or pain which thus follows upon our behaviour, be 
owing to the Author of Nature's acting upon us every mo- 
ment which we feel it, or to his having at once contrived 
and executed his own part in the plan of the world, makes 
no alteration as to the matter before us. For, if civil ma- 
gistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place, 
without interposing at all after they had passed them, with- 
out a trial and the formalities of an execution ; if they were 
able to make their laws execute themselves, or every offender 
to execute them upon himself, we should be just in the 
same sense under their government then as we are now ; 
but in a much higher degree and more perfect manner. 
Vain is the ridicule with which one foresees some persons 
will divert themselves, upon finding lesser pains considered 
as instances of divine punishment. There is no possibility 
of answering or evading the general thing here intended, 
without denying all final causes. For, final causes being 
admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be 
admitted too, as instances of them. And if they are, if 
God annexes delight to some actions and uneasiness to 
others, with an apparent design to induce us to act so and so, 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 27 

then he not only dispenses happiness and misery, but also 
rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain 
which we feel upon doing what tends to the destruction of 
our bodies, suppose upon too near approaches to fire, or upon 
wounding ourselves, be appointed by the Author of Nature 
to prevent our doing what thus tends to our destruction ; 
this is altogether as much an instance of his punishing our 
actions, and consequently of our being under his govern- 
ment, as declaring, by a voice from heaven, that if we acted 
so he would inflict such pain upon us, and inflicting it 
whether it be greater or less." * 

If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the crea- 
tor ; that Nature, in the general sense, means the world 
which He has made, — and, in a more limited sense, the par- 
ticular constitution which he has bestowed on any special 
object, of which we may be treating ; — and that a Law of 
Nature means the established mode in which the actions 
and phenomena of any creature or object exhibit themselves, 
and the obligation thereby imposed on intelligent beings to 
attend to it, — he will be in no danger of misunderstanding 
my meaning. 

Every natural object has received a definite constitution, 
in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There must, 
therefore, be as many natural laws, as there are distinct 
modes of action of substances and beings, viewed by them- 
selves. But substances and beings stand in certain rela- 
tions to each other, and modify each other's action, in an 
established and definite manner, according to that relation- 
ship ; altitude, for instance, modifies the effect of heat upon 
water. There must, therefore, be also as many laws of 
nature, as there are relations between different substances 
and beings. 

It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to 
elucidate all these laws : numberless years may elapse be- 
fore they shall be discovered ; but we may investigate some 
of the most familiar and striking of them. Those that most 
readily present themselves bear reference to the great classes 
into which the objects around us may be divided, namely, 
Physical, Organic, and Intelligent. I shall therefore con- 

* Butler's Works, vol. i. p. 44. The remarks of other author* 
on the Laws of Nature will be found in the Appendix, No. I. 



28 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

fine myself to the physical laws, the organic laws, and the 
laws which characterize intelligent beings. 

1st, The Physical Laws embrace all the phenomena of 
mere matter : a heavy body, for instance, when unsupport- 
ed, falls to the ground with a certain accelerating force, in 
proportion to the distance which it falls, and its own density ; 
and this motion is said to take place according to the law of 
gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable blue colour, 
converts it into red, and this is said to take place according 
to a chemical law. 

2d/y, Organized substances and beings stand liigher in the 
scale of creation, and have properties peculiar to themselves. 
They act, and are acted upon, in conformity with their con- 
stitution, and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar 
set of laws, termed the Organic. The distinguishing char 
acteristic of this class of objects is, that the individuals of 
them derive their existence from other organized beings, are 
nourished by food, and go through a regular process of 
growth and decay. Vegetables and Animals are the two 
great subdivisions of it. The organic laws are different 
from the merely physical : a stone, for example, does not 
spring from a parent stone ; it does not take food ; it does 
not increase in vigour for a time, and then decay and suffer 
dissolution ; all which processes characterize vegetables and 
animals. 

The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. 
A living man, or animal, may be placed in an oven, along 
with the carcass of a dead animal, and remain exposed to 
a heat which will completely bake the dead flesh, and yet 
come out alive, and not seriously injured. The dead flesh 
is mere physical matter, and its decomposition by the heat 
instantly commences ; but the living animal is able, by its 
organic qualities, to counteract and resist, to a certain ex- 
tent, that influence. The Organic Laws, therefore, mean 
the established modes according to which all phenomena 
connected with the production, health* growth, decay, and 
death, of vegetables and animals, take place. In the case 
of each animal or vegetable of the same kind, their action is 
always the same, in the same circumstances. Animals are 
the chief objects of my present observations. 

Zdly y Intelligent beings stand yet higher in the scale than 
merely organized matter, and embrace all animals that have 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 26 

distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the inferior crea- 
tures up to man. The two great divisions of this class arc 
Intelligent and Animal — and Intelligent and Moral crea- 
tures. The dog, horse, and elephant, for instance, belong 
to the former class, because they possess some degree of 
intelligence, and certain animal propensities, but no moral 
feelings ; man belongs to the second, because he possesses 
all the three. These various faculties have received a de- 
finite constitution, and stand in determinate relationship to 
external objects : for example, a healthy palate cannot feel 
wormwood sweet, nor sugar bitter ; a healthy eye cannot 
see a rod partly plunged in water straight — because the 
water so modifies the rays of light, as to give to the stick 
the appearance of being crooked ; a healthy sentiment of 
Benevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a healthy 
Conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, the mental 
faculties have received a precise constitution, have been 
placed in fixed and definite relations to external objects, 
and act regularly ; — we speak of their acting according to 
rules or laws, and call these the Moral and Intellectual 
Laws. 

Several important principles strike us very early in at- 
tending to the natural laws, viz. 1st, Their independence 
of each other ; 2^Z?/, That obedience to each of them is 
attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its 
own punishment ; 3dly, That they are universal, unbending, 
and invariable in their operation ; 4=thli/, That they are in 
harmony with the constitution of man 

1. The independence of the natural laws may be illus- 
trated thus : — A ship floats because a part of it being im- 
mersed displaces a weight of water equal to its whole weight, 
leaving the remaining portion above the fluid. A ship, 
therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as 
these physical conditions are observed ; no matter although 
the men in it should infringe other natural laws — as, for 
example, although they should rob, murder, blaspheme, and 
commit every species of debauchery : and it will sink when- 
ever the physical conditions are subverted, however strictly 
the crew and passengers may obey the moral laws. In like 
manner, a man who swallows poison, which destroys the 
stomach or intestines, will die, just because an organic law 
has been infringed, and because it acts independently oi 
3* 



SO ON NATURAL LAWfl. 

others ; although he should have taken the drug by mistake, 
or have been the most pious and charitable individual on 
earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, steal, tyrannise, 
and, in short, break a great variety of the moral laws, and 
nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if he sedulously observe 
the organic laws of temperance and exercise ; while on the 
other hand, an individual who neglects these, may pine in 
disease, and be racked with torturing pains, although at the 
very moment he may be devoting his mind to the highest 
duties of humanity. 

2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own reward, 
and disobedience with its own punishment. Thus the mari- 
ners who preserve their ship in accordance with the physical 
laws, reap the reward of sailing in safety ; and those who 
permit a departure from them, are punished by the ship 
sinking. People who obey the moral law, enjoy the intense 
internal delights that spring from active moral faculties ; 
they render themselves, moreover, objects of affection and 
esteem to moral and intelligent beings, who, in consequence, 
confer on them many other gratifications. Those who 
disobey that law, are tormented by insatiable desires, which, 
from the nature of things, cannot be gratified ; they are 
punished by the perpetual craving of whatever portoin of 
moral sentiment they possess, for higher enjoyments, which 
are never attained ; and they are objects of dislike and 
malevolence to other beings of similar dispositions with 
themselves, who inflict on them the evils dictated by their 
own provoked propensities. Those who obey the organic 
laws, reap the reward of health and vigour of body, and 
buoyancy of mind ; while those who break them are punish- 
ed by sickness, feebleness, languor, and pain. 

3. The natural laws are universal, invariable, and unbend- 
ing. When the physical laws are infringed in China or 
Kamtschatka, there is no instance of a ship floating there 
more than in England ; and, when they are observed, there 
is no instance of a vessel sinking in any one of these coun- 
tries more than another. There is no example of men, in 
any country, enjoying the mild and generous internal joys, 
and the outward esteem and love, that attend obedience to 
the moral law, while they give themselves up to the domi- 
nion of brutal propensities. There is no example, in any 
latitude or longitude, or in any age, of men who entered life 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 31 

with a constitution in harmony with the organic laws, and 
who continued to obey these laws throughout, being, in con- 
sequence of this obedience, visited with pain and disease ; 
and there are no instances of men who were born with con- 
stitutions marred by the organic laws, and who lived in ha- 
bitual disobedience to them, enjoying that sound health and 
vigour of body that are the rewards of obedience. 

4. The natural laws are in harmony with the whole consti* 
tution of ma?i y the moral and intellectual powers holding 
the supremacy. If ships in general had sunk when they 
were stanch, strong, and skilfully managed, this would have 
outraged the perceptions of reason ; but as they float, the 
physical law is, in this instance, in harmony with the moral 
and intellectual law. If men who rioted in drunkenness and 
debauchery had thereby established health and increased 
their happiness, this, again, would have been at variance 
with our intellectual and moral perceptions ; but the oppo- 
site and actual result is in harmony with them. 

It will be subsequently shown, that our moral sentiments 
desire universal happiness. If the physical and organic 
laws are constituted in harmony with them, it ought to fol- 
low that the natural laws, when obeyed, will conduce to the 
happiness of the moral and intelligent beings who are called 
on to observe them; and that the evil consequences, or 
punishments, resulting from infringement of them, will be 
calculated to enforce stricter obedience, for the advantage 
of those creatures themselves. According to this view, when 
a ship sinks, in consequence of a plank star-ting, the punish- 
ment is intended to impress upon the spectators the abso- 
lute necessity of having every plank secure and strong be- 
fore going to sea, this being a condition indispensable to their 
safety. When sickness and pain follow a debauch, the ob- 
ject of the suffering is to urge a more scrupulous obedience 
to the organic laws, that the individual may escape prema- 
ture death, which is the inevitable consequence of too 
great and continued disobedience to these laws, — and enjoy 
health, which is the reward of the opposite conduct. When 
discontent, irritation, hatred, and other mental annoyances 
arise out of infringement of the moral law, this punishment 
is calculated to induce the offender to return to obedience, 
that he may enjoy the rewards attached to it. 

When the transgression of any natural law is excessive, 



32 ON NATURAL LAW§. 

and so great that return to obedience is impossible, one pur- 
pose of death, which then ensues, may be to deliver the in- 
dividual from a continuation of the punishment which could 
then do him no good. Thus, when, from infringement of 
a physical law, a ship sinks at sea, and leaves men immer- 
sed in water, without the possibility of reaching land, theii 
continued existence in that state would be one of cruel and 
protracted suffering ; and it is advantageous to them to have 
their lives extinguished at once by drowning, thereby with- 
drawing them from farther agony. In like manner, if a 
man in the vigour of life so far infringe any organic law 
as to destroy the function of a vital organ — the heart, for 
instance, or the lungs, or the brain — it is better for him to 
have his life cut short, and his pain put an end to, than to 
have it protracted under all the tortures of an organic exis- 
tence, without lungs, without a heart, or without a brain, if 
such a state were possible, which for this wise reason, it is 
not. 

I do not intend to predicate any thing concerning the ab- 
solute perfectibility of man by obedience to the laws of na- 
ture. The system of sublunary creation, so far as we per- 
ceive it, does not appear to be one of optimism ; yet benevo- 
lent design, in its constitution, is undeniable. Paley says, 
" Nothing remains but the supposition, that God, when he 
created the human species, wished them happiness, and 
made for them the provisions which he has made, with that 
view and for that purpose. The same argument may be 
proposed in different terms : Contrivance proves design ; 
and the predominant tendency of the contrivance indicates 
the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with 
contrivances ; and all the contrivances which we are ac- 
quainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes," — (Paley's 
Mor. Phil., Edinb. 1816, p. 51.) Many of the contrivances 
of the Creator, for effecting beneficial purposes, have been 
discovered by philosophers ; but, so far as I am aware, no 
one has adverted to the foregoing principles according to 
which these contrivances operate, so that nothing like a 
systematic view of the moral government of the world has 
hitherto been presented to mankind. 

Neither do I intend to teach that the natural laws, dis- 
cernible by unassisted reason, are sufficient for the salvation 
of man without revelation. Human interests regard tbi* 






ON NATURAL LAWS. 33 

world and the next. To enjoy this world, I humbly main- 
tain that man must discover and obey the natural laws. 
Revelation does not communicate complete information con- 
cerning the best mode of pursuing even our legitimate tem- 
poral interests ; and numerous practical duties resulting from 
our constitution are discoverable, which are not treated of 
in detail in the inspired volume — the mode of preserving 
health, for example ; of pursuing with success a temporal 
calling ; of discovering the qualities of men with whom 
we mean to associate our interests ; and so on. This is 
the case, probably because faculties have been given to man 
to discover arts, sciences, and the natural laws, and to adapt 
his conduct to them ; and because the physical, moral, and 
intellectual nature of man, is itself left open to investiga- 
tion by these faculties. My object, I repeat, is to investi- 
gate the natural constitution of the human body and mind, 
their relations to external objects and beings in this world 
and the courses of action that, in consequence, appear to be 
beneficial or hurtful in this life. 

Man's spiritual interests belong to the sphere of revela- 
tion ; and I distinctly repeat, that I do not teach that obe- 
dience to the natural laws is sufficient for salvation in a fu- 
ture state. Revelation prescribes certain requisites for sal- 
vation, which may be divided into two classes — first, faith 
or belief; and, secondly, the performance of certain prac- 
tical duties, not as entitling to salvation, but as the native 
result of that faith, and the necessary evidence of its sin- 
cerity. The natural laws form no guide as to faith ; but, 
so far as I can perceive, their dictates and those of revela- 
tion coincide in all matters relating to practical duties in 
temporal affairs. 

It may be asked, whether mere knowledge of the natural 
laws is sufficient to insure observance of them 1 Certainly 
not. Mere knowledge of music does not enable one to play 
on an instrument, nor of anatomy to perform skilfully a sur- 
gical operation. Practical training, and the aid of every 
motive that can interest the feelings, are necessary to lead 
individuals to obey the natural laws. Religion, in particu- 
lar, may furnish motives highly conducive to this obedience. 
But it must never be forgotten, that although mere know- 
ledge is not all-sufficient, it is a primary and indispensable 
requisite to regular observance ; and that it is as impossible 



34 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

effectually and systematically to obey the natural laws with- 
out knowing them, as it is to perform any other complicated 
and important duty in ignorance of its principles and prac- 
tical details. Some persons are of opinion that Christianity 
alone suffices, not only for man's salvation— which I do not 
dispute— but for his guidance in all practical virtues, with- 
out knowledge of, or obedience to, the laws of nature ; but 
from this notion I respectfully dissent. It appears to me, 
that one reason why vice and misery do not diminish in pro- 
portion to preaching, is, that the natural laws are too much 
overlooked, and very rarely considered as having any rela- 
tion to human conduct. The theological doctrine of the 
corruption and disorder of human nature, joined to the want 
of knowledge of real science, have probably been the causes 
why the professed servants of God have made so little use 
of His laws, as revealed in creation, in instructing the peo- 
ple to live according to His will. Before religion can yield 
its full practical fruits in this world, it must be wedded to a 
philosophy founded on those laws ; it must borrow light and 
strength from them, and in return communicate its power- 
ful sanction in enforcing obedience to their dictates. 

Connected with this subject, it is proper to state, that I 
do not maintain that the world is arranged on the principle 
of benevolence exclusively : my idea is, that it is constituted 
in harmony with the whole faculties of man ; the moral sen- 
timents and intellect holding the supremacy. What is meant 
by creation being constituted in harmony with the whole 
faculties of man, may be illustrated thus. Suppose that we 
should see two men holding a third in a chair, and a fourth 
drawing a tooth from his head : — While we contemplated 
this bare act, and knew nothing of the intention with which 
it was done, and of the consequences that would follow, we 
would set it down as purely cruel, and say, that, although 
it might accord with the propensity which prompts men to 
inflict pain and destroy, it could not harmonize with Bene- 
volence. But, when we are told that the individual in the 
chair was a patient and the operator a dentist, and that the 
object of all the parties was to deliver the first from violent 
torture, we would then perceive that an operation attended 
with pain had been used as a means to accomplish a bene- 
volent purpose, — or, in other words, that the operator had 
acted under the supremacy of moral sentiment and intellect, 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 35 

—and we would approve of his conduct. If the world had 
been created on the principle of Benevolence exclusively, 
the toothache could not have existed ; but, as pain does e±- 
ist, a mental faculty, called by the phrenologists Destructive- 
ness, has been given to place man in harmony with its exis- 
tence, when used for a benevolent end. 

To apply this illustration to the works of Providence, I 
humbly suggest it as probable, that, if we knew thoroughly 
the design and whole consequences of such institutions of 
the Creator as are attended with pain, including death itself, 
we should find that infliction is used as a means^ subservient 
to Benevolence and Justice, to arrive at an end in harmony 
with the moral sentiments and intellect ; in short, that no 
institution of the Creator has pure evil, or destruction alone, 
for its object. "In maturity of sense and understanding," 
says Lord Karnes, "benevolence appears more and more; 
and beautiful final causes are discovered in many of nature's 
productions, that formerly were thought useless, or perhaps 
hurtful : and the time may come — we have solid ground to 
hope that it will come — when doubts and difficulties about 
the government of Providence will all of them be cleared up, 
and every event be found conducive to the general good." * 

The opposite of this doctrine, viz. that there are institu- 
tions of the Creator which have suffering for their exclusive 
object, is clearly untenable ; for this would be ascribing ma 
levolence to the Deity. As, however, the existence of pain 
is undeniable, it is equally impossible to believe that the 
world is arranged on the principle of Benevolence exclu- 
sively. The view now presented makes no attempt to ex- 
plain why pain or evil exists, because I consider this inquiry 
to surpass the limits of the human understanding. It offers 
an explanation, however, of the use which pain serves — that 
of enforcing obedience to the natural laws ; and it shows 
that the human mind is constituted in harmony with this 
order of creation. Phrenology alone, of all systems of men- 
tal philosophy, admits faculties clearly related to difficulty, 
pain, and death, and thus enhances our perceptions of divine 
wisdom and goodness. 

* Sketches, B. 3, Sk. 3, ch. 2, 



/ 36 ) 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS TO 
EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

Let us next consider the Constitution of Man, and tha 
natural laws to which he is subjected, and endeavour to 
discover how far the external world is arranged with wisdom 
and benevolence in regard to him. Bishop Butler, in the 
Preface to his Sermons, says, " It is from considering the 
relations which the several appetites and passions m the in- 
ward frame have to each other, and, above all, the supre- 
macy of reflection or conscience, that we get the idea of the 
system or constitution of human nature. And from the 
idea itself it will as fully appear, that this our nature, L e. 
constitution, is adapted to virtue, as from the idea of a wateh 
it appears that its nature, i. e. constitution or system, is 
adapted to measure time." 

" Mankind has various instincts and principles of action, 
as brute creatures have ; some leading most directly and 
immediately to the good of the community, and some most 
directly to private good. 

"Man has several which brutes have not ; particularly 
reflection or conscience, an approbation of some principles 
or actions, and disapprobation of others. 

" Brutes obey their instincts or principles of action, ac- 
cording to certain rules ; suppose the constitution of their 
body, and the objects around them. 

"The generality of mankind also obey their instincts and 
principles, all of them ; those propensions we call good, as 
well as the bad, according to the same rules, namely, the 
constitution of their body, and the external circumstances 
which they are in. 

" Brutes, in acting according to the rules before men* 
tioned, their bodily constitution and circumstances, act suit- 
ably to their whole nature. 

" Mankind also, in noting thus, would act suitably to theii 



CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 37 

whole nature, if no more were to be said of man's nature 
than what has been now said ; if that, as it is a true, were 
also a complete, adequate account of our nature. 

" But that is not a complete account of man's nature. 
Somewhat further must be brought in to give us an ade- 
quate notion of it ; namely, that one of those principles of 
action, conscience, or reflection, compared with the rest, as 
they all stand together in the nature of man, plainly hears 
upon it marks of authority over all the rest, and claims the 
absolute direction of them, all, to allow or forbid their gratifi- 
cation ; — a disapprobation on reflection being in itself a prin- 
ciple manifestly superior to a mere propension. And the 
conclusion is, that to allow no more to this superior princi- 
ple or part of our nature, than to other parts ; to let it 
govern and guide only occasionally, in common with the 
rest, as its turn happens to come from tne temper and cir- 
cumstances one happens to be in ; this is not to act conform- 
ably to the constitution of man ; neither can any human crea- 
ture be said to act conformably to his constitution of nature, 
unless he allows to that superior principle the absolute au- 
thority which is due to it." — Butler's Works, vol. ii. Pre- 
face. The present treatise is in a great measure founded 
on the principles here suggested.* 

SECT. I. MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING. 

The human body consists of bones, muscles, nerves, and 
bloodvessels, besides organs of nutrition, of reproduction, 
of respiration, of feeling, and of thought. These parts are 
all composed of physical elements, and, to a certain extent, 
are subjected to the physical laws of creation. By the law 
of gravitation, the body falls to the ground when unsup- 
ported, and is liable to be injured like any frangible sub- 
stance : by a chemical law, excessive cold freezes, and ex- 
cessive heat dissipates, its fluids ; and life, in either case, is 
extinguished. 

To discover the real effect of the physical laws of nature 
on human happiness, we would require to understand, 1st, 
The physical laws themselves, as revealed by mathematics, 
natural philosophy, natural history, chemistry, and their 

* H5ee Appendix, No. II. 
4 



39 MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING*. 

subordinate branches ; 2dty, The anatomical and physiolo- 
gical constitution of the human body ; and, Sdly, The adap- 
tatlon of the former to the latter. These expositions are 
necessary to ascertain the extent to which it is possible for 
man to place himself in accordance with the physical laws, 
so as to reap advantage from them - r and also to. determine 
how far the sufferings which he endures fall to be ascribed 
to the inevitable operation of these laws, and how far to. his 
ignorance and infringement of them. In the subsequent 
pages, this subject will be treated somewhat in detail : at 
present I confine myself to a single instance as an illustra- 
tion of the mode in which the investigation ought to be con> 
ducted.* 

By the law of gravitation, heavy bodies always tend to- 
wards the centre of the earth. Some of the advantages- of" 
this law are, that objects, when properly supported, remain* 
at rest ; that walls, when built sufficiently thick and perpen- 
dicular, stand firm and erect -> that water descends from high 
places, and precipitates itself down the channels of rivers, 
turns mill-wheels in its course,, and sets in motion the most 
stupendous and useful machinery; and that ships move 
steadily through the water with part of their hull& immersed 
and part rising moderately above it, and their masts and sails 
towering in the air to catch the inconstant breeze. 

To place man in harmony with this law, the Creator has 
bestowed on him bones, muscles, and nerves, constructed 
on the most perfect principles,, which enable him to pre- 
serve his equilibrium, and to adapt his movements to gra* 
vitation; also intellectual faculties, calculated to perceive 
the existence of the law, its modes of operation, the relation 
between it and himself, the beneficial consequences of ob- 
serving this relation, and the painful results of disregard- 
ing it. „ 

When a person falls over a precipice, and is maimed or 
killed, — when a ship springs a leak and sinks, — or when a 
reservoir of water breaks down its banks and ravages a val- 
ley, — the evils, no doubt, proceed from the operation of this 

* The reader will find many valuable illustrations of these laws in 
"The Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation of Health, 
and to the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education," by An* 
drew Combe, M. D. Third edition. Maclachlan & Stewart, Edin- 
burgh ; and Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., London. 



MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING. 89 

law ; but we ought to inquire whether they could or could 
not have been prevented, by a due exercise of the physical 
and mental powers bestowed by the Creator on man, to 
enable him to avoid the injurious effects of gravitation. 

By pursuing this course, we shall arrive at sound conclu- 
sions concerning the adaptation of the humau mind and body 
to the physical laws of creation. The subject is too exten- 
sive to be here prosecuted in all its details, and I am incom 
petent, besides, to do it justice ; but enough has been said 
to elucidate the principle contended for. And the more mi- 
nutely any one inquires, the mose firm will be his convic- 
tion, that, in these relations, admirable provision has been 
made by the Creator for human happiness, and that the evils 
which arise from the neglect of them, are attributable, to a 
great extent, to man's not adequately applying his powers 
to the promotion of his own enjoyment 

SECT. IT. MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 

Man is an organized being, and subject to the organic 
laws. An organized being, as was formerly noticed, is one 
which derives its existence from a previously existing or- 
ganized being, which subsists on food, which grows, attains 
maturity, decays, and dies. The first law, then, that must 
be obeyed, to render an organized being perfect in its kind, 
is, that the germ, from which it springs, shall be complete 
in all its parts, and sound in its whole constitution. If we 
sow an acorn in which some vital part has been destroyed 
altogether, the seedling plant, and the full grown oak, if it 
ever attain to maturity, will be deficient in the lineaments 
which are wanting in the embryo root ; if we sow an acorn 
entire in its parts, but only half ripened, or damaged in its 
whole texture by damp or other causes, the seedling oak 
will be feeble, and will probably die early. A similar law 
holds in regard to man. A second organic law is, that the 
organized being, the moment it is ushered into life, and so 
long as it continues to live, must be supplied with food, light, 
air, and every other physical element requisite for its sup- 
port, in due quantity, and of the kind best suited to its par- 
ticular constitution. Obedience to this law is rewarded with 
& vigorous and healthy development of its powers, and in 



40 MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 

animals, with a pleasing consciousness of existence, and 
aptitude for the performance of their natural functions ; dis- 
obedience is punished with feebleness, and stinted growth, 
general imperfection, or early death. A single fact will illus- 
trate this observation. At the meeting of the British As- 
sociation, held in Edinburgh in 1834, there was read an Ab- 
stract, by Dr. Joseph Clarke, of a Registry kept in the Lying- 
in Hospital of Great Britain Street, Dublin, from the year 
1758 to the end of 1833, from which it appeared, that, in 
1781, when the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every 
sixth child died within nine days after birth of convulsive 
disease, and that, after means of thorough ventilation had 
been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same time, 
in five succeeding years, was reduced to nearly one in twenty.* 
A third organic law, applicable to man, is, that he shall duly 
exercise his organs, this condition being an indispensable 
prerequisite of health. The reward of obedience to this 
law, is enjoyment in the very act of exercising the functions, 
pleasing consciousness of existence, and the acquisition of 
numberless gratifications and advantages, of which labour, 
or the exercise of our powers, is the procuring means : dis- 
obedience is punished with derangement and sluggishness 
of the functions, with general uneasiness or positive pain, 
and with the denial of gratification to numerous faculties. 

Directing our attention to the constitution of the human 
body, we perceive that the power of reproduction is bestow- 
ed on man, and also intellect to enable him to discover and 
obey the conditions necessary for the transmission of a healthy 
organic frame to his descendants ; that digestive organs are 
given to him for his nutrition, and that innumerable vegeta- 
ble and animal productions are placed around him, in wise 
relationship to these organs. 

Without attempting to expound minutely the organic 
structure of man, or to trace in detail its adaptation to his 
external condition, I shall offer some observations in sup- 
port of the proposition, that the due exercise of the osseous, 
muscular, and nervous systems, under the guidance of in- 
tellect and moral sentiment, and in accordance with the 
physical laws, contributes to human enjoyment ; and that 

♦ Edin. New Phil. Jour., Oct. 1331, p. 416. 



MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. II 

neglect of this exercise, ot an abuse of it, by carrying it to 
excess, or by conducting it in opposition to the moral, intel- 
lectual, or physical laws, is punished with pain. 

The earth is endowed with the capability of producing an 
ample supply of food, provided we expend muscular and 
nervous energy in its cultivation ; while, in most climates, 
it refuses to produce, if we withhold this labour and allow 
It to lie waste : Further, the Creator has presented us with 
limber, metal, wool, and countless materials, which, by means 
of muscular power, may be converted into dwelling-places, 
clothing, and all the luxuries of life. The fertility of the 
earth, and the demands of the body for food and clothing, 
are so benevolently adapted to each other, that with rational 
restraint on population, a few hours' labour each day from 
every individual capable of working, would suffice to furnish 
all with every commodity that could really add to enjoyment. 
"It has been computed^" says Dr. Franklin, "by some po- 
litical arithmetician, that if every man and woman would 
work for four hours each day on something useful, that la- 
bour would be sufficient to procure all the necessaries and 
comforts of life; want and misery would be banished out 
of the world ; and the rest of the twenty-four hours might be 
leisure and pleasure." — Essay on Luxury ', Idleness, and 
Industry.) 

In the tropical regions of the globe, where a high atmos- 
pheric temperature diminishes the quantum of muscular 
energy, the fertility and productiveness of the soil are in- 
creased in a like proportion, so that less labour suffices. 
Less labour, also, is required to provide habitations and rai- 
ment. In the colder latitudes, muscular energy is greatly 
increased, and there much higher demands are made upon 
it.: the earth is more sterile, and the piercing frosts- render 
oecessary a thicker covering for the body. 

Farther, the food afforded by the soil in each climate ap- 
pears to be adapted to the maintenance of the organic con- 
stitution of the people in health, and to the supply of the 
muscular energy necessary for the particular wants of the 
situation. In the Arctic Regions, no farinaceous food ripens ; 
but on the question being put to Dr. Richardson, how he, 
accustomed to the bread and vegetables of the temperate 
regions, was able to endure the pure animal diet, which form- 
ed his only support on his expedition to the shores of the 
4* 



43 MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 

Polar Sea along with Captain Franklin, he replied, that the 
effect of the extreme dry cold to which he and his companion* 
were constantly exposed — living, as they did, in the open 
air — was to produce a desire for the most stimulating food 
they could obtain ; that bread in such a climate was not 
only not desired, but comparatively impotent, as an article 
of diet ; that the pure animal food, and the fatter the better, 
was the only sustenance that maintained the tone of the cor- 
poreal system ; but that when it was abundant (and the 
quantity required was much greater than in milder latitudes,) 
a delightful vigour and buoyancy of mind and body were en- 
joyed, that rendered life highly agreeable. Now, in beau- 
tiful harmony with these wants of the human frame, these 
regions abound, during summer, in countless herds of deer, 
in rabbits, partridges, ducks, and, in short, every sort of game, 
and also in fish ; and the flesh of these, dried, constitutes de- 
licious food in winter, when the earth is wrapped in one 
wide mantle of snow. 

Among the Greenlanders and other Esquimaux tribes, 
nothing is so much relished as the fat of the whale, the seal, 
or the walrus : a tallow candle and a draught of train oil are 
regarded as dainties ; while a piece of bread is spit out with 
strong indications of disgust. 

In Scotland, the climate is moist and moderately cold ; 
the greater part of the surface is mountainous, and well 
adapted for rearing sheep and cattle ; while a certain por- 
tion consists of fertile plains, fitted for raising farinaceous 
food. If the same law holds in this country, the diet of 
the people should consist of animal and farinaceous food, 
the former predominating. And on such food, accordingly, 
the Scotsman thrives best. As we proceed to warmer 
latitudes, to France for instance, we find the soil and tem- 
perature less congenial to sheep and cattle, but more fa- 
vourable to corn and wine ; and the Frenchman flourishes 
in health on less of animal food, than would be requisite to 
preserve the Scottish Highlander, in the recesses of his 
mountains, in a strong and alert condition. From one of a 
series of interesting letters on the agriculture of France by 
M. Lullin de Chateauvieux, published in the Bibliotheque 
Universelle, it appears that the consumption of beef in that 
country relative to the population, is only one-sixth of what 
U is ill England. {Journal of Agriculture , No, iii. p. 39(M 



MAX CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 43 

The plains of Hindustan are too hot for the extensive rear- 
ing of the sheep and the ox, but produce rice and vegetable 
spices in prodigious abundance ; and the native is healthy, 
vigorous, and active, when supplied with rice and curry, 
and becomes sick when obliged to live chiefly on animal 
diet. He is supplied with less muscular energy by this 
species of food ; out his soil and climate require far less 
laborious exertion to maintain him in comfort, than those 
of Britain, Germany, or Russia. 

So far, than the external world appears to be wisely and 
benevolently adapted to the organic system of man ; that 
is, to his nutrition, and to the development and exercise of 
his corporeal organs. The natural law appears to be, that 
every one who desires to enjoy the pleasures of health, 
must expend in labour the energy which the Creator has 
infused into his limbs. A wide choice is left to man, as to 
the mode in which he shall exercise his nervous and mus- 
cular systems : The labourer, for example, digs the ground, 
and the squire engages in the chase ; both pursuits exercise 
the body. The penalty for neglecting this law is imperfect 
digestion and disturbed sleep, debility, bodily and mental 
lassitude, and, if carried to a certain length, confirmed bad 
health and early death. The penalty for over-exerting these 
systems is exhaustion, mental incapacity, the desire of 
strong artificial stimulants (such as ardent spirits), general 
insensibility, grossness of feeling and perception, with dis- 
ease and shortened life. 

Society has not recognised this law ; and, in consequence, 
the higher orders despise labour and suffer the first penalty, 
while the lower orders are oppressed with toil and undergo 
the second. The penalties serve to provide motives for 
obedience to the law ; and whenever it is recognised, and 
the consequences are discovered to be inevitable, men will 
no longer shun labour as painful and ignominious, bu. re 
sort to it as a source of pleasure and advantage. * 

* See Apueridiiv No, UJ- 



4* MENTAL FACULTIES OP MAN. 

SSCT. III. MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL, MORAL, AND 

INTELLECTUAL BEING. 

I hare adverted to the bodily constitution of man, which 
is essentially animal ; but I observe, in the third place, 
that man, viewed in regard to his mental constitution, is an 
animal, moral, and intellectual being. To discover the 
adaptation of the mental parts of his nature to his external 
circumstances, we must first know what are his various ani- 
mal, moral and intellectual powers themselves. Phrenology 
gives us a view of them, drawn from observation j and as I 
have verified the inductions of that science, so as to satisfy 
myself that it is the most complete and correct exposition 
of the nature of man which has yet been given, I adopt its 
classification of faculties as the basis of the subsequent ob- 
servations. One great advantage presented by Phrenology, 
is the light which it throws on the natural constitution of 
the mind. Philosophers and divines have long disputed 
about the number and functions of the human faculties ; 
and while each assumed his own consciousness as the 
standard of nature, and occupied himself chiefly with obser- 
vations on its phenomena, as his means of study, there 
could be no end to their discussions. But the organs of the 
mind can be seen and felt, and their size estimated, — and the 
mental manifestations also that accompany them can be 
observed, in an unlimited number of instances, — so that, 
assuming the existence of organs, it is clear that a far higher 
degree of certainty in regard to the natural endowments of 
the mind may be attained by these means, than by any other 
previously applied. It is disputed also whether man be 
now in possession of the same qualities as those with which 
he was created ; but the fact of the organs having been 
bestowed by the Creator is not open to contradiction, if they 
exist at all ; and if we discover their functions and their 
uses, and distinguish these from their abuses, we shall 
obviously obtain clearer views of what God has instituted, 
and of the extent to which man himself is chargeable with 
error and perversion, than could be arrived at by the means 
hitherto employed. Such conclusions, if correctly drawn, 
will possess an irresistible authority — that of the record of 
creation itself. If, therefore, any reader be disposed to 
question the existence of such qualities in man as I am 
about to describe, he must, to do so consistently, be pre- 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 45 

pared to deny, on reasonable grounds, that mental organs 
exist, — or, if he allows their existence, he must establish 
that the observations of phrenologists in regard to them are 
incorrect, or their inferences regarding their functions erro- 
neously deduced. According to Phrenology, then, the hu- 
man faculties are the following. The organs are double, 
each faculty having two, lying in corresponding situations 
of the hemispheres of the brain. Their situations are in- 
dicated by the engravings. 

Order I, FEELINGS. 

Genus I. propensities — Common to Man with the Lower 
animals. 




The Love of Life, 

Appetite for Food. — Uses: Nutrition. — Abuses: Gluttony 
and drunkenness. The Organ is marked with a cross on bust. 



46 MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN 

Amativeness — Produces sexual love. 

2, Phlloprogenitiveness. — Uses: Affection for young and ten- 
der beings. — Abuses: Pampering and spoiling children. 

3* Concentrativeness. — Uses : It gives the desire of perma- 
nence in place, and renders permanent, emotions and ideas in 
the mind. — Abuses : Aversion to move abroad ; morbid dwel- 
ling on internal emotions and ideas, to the neglect of external 
impressions. 

4. Adhesiveness. — Uses: Attachment ; friendship and society re- 
sult from it. — Abuses : Clanship for improper objects, attach- 
ment to worthless individuals. It is generally strong in 
women. 

6. Combativeness. — Uses : Courage to meet danger and over- 
.come difficulties, tendency to oppose and attack whatever re- 
quires opposition, and to resist unjust encroachments. — Abuses: 
Love of contention, and tendency to provoke and assault. 
This feeling obviously adapts man to a world in which danger 
and difficulty abound. 

6. Destbuctiveness. — Uses: Desire to destroy noxious objects, 

and to kill for food. It is very discernible in carnivorous ani- 
mals. — Abuses : Cruelty, murder, desire to torment, tendency 
to passion, rage, and harshness and severity in speech and 
writing. This feeling places man in harmony with death and 
destruction, which are woven into the system of sublunary 
creation. 

7. Sbchetiveness. — Uses: Tendency to restrain within the mind 

the various emotions and ideas that involuntarily present them- 
selves, until the judgment has approved of giving them utter- 
ance ; it is simply the propensity to conceal, and is an ingre- 
dient in prudence. Abuses: Cunning, deceit, duplicity, and 
lying. 

8. Acqr/isiTiVENESS. Uses: Desire to possess, and tendency to 

accumulate articles of utility, to provide against want.— Abuses : 
Inordinate desire of property, selfishness, avarice, theft. 

9. Constructiveness. — Uses: Desire to build and construct 

works of art. — Abuses: Construction of engines to injure or 
destroy, and fabrication of objects to deceive mankind. 

Genus II. SENTIMENTS. 
I. Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals, 

10. Self-Esteem. — Uses : Self-respect, self-interest, love of inde- 

pendence, personal dignity. — Abuses: Pride, disdain, over- 
weening conceit, excessive selfishness, love of dominion. 

11. Love of Approbation. — Uses: Desire of the esteem of 

others, love of praise, desire of fame or glory. — Abuses : 
Vanity, ambition, thirst for praise independently of praise* 
worthiness. 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 47 

12. Cautiousness. — Uses : It gives origin to the sentiment of fear, 

the desire to shun danger, and circumspection ; and it is an 
igredient in prudence. — Abuses : Excessive timidity, poltroo- 
nery, unfounded apprehensions, despondency, melancholy. 

13. Benevolence. — Uses: Desire of the happiness of others, uni- 

versal charity, mildness of disposition, and a lively sympathy 
with the enjoyment of all animated beings. — Abuses : Profu- 
sion, injurious indulgence of the appetites and fancies of 
others, prodigality, facility of temper. 

II. Sentiments Proper to Man, 

14. Veneration. — Uses : Tendency to venerate or respect what- 

ever is great and good ; gives origin to religious adoration.— 
Abuses : Senseless respect for unworthy objects consecrated 
by time or situation, love of antiquated customs, abject sub- 
serviency to persons in authority, superstitious awe. 

15. firmness. — Uses: Determination, perseverance, steadiness of 

purpose. — Abuses : Stubbornness, infatuation, tenacity in evil. 

16. Conscientiousness. — Uses: It gives origin to the sentiment 

of justice, or respect for the rights of others, openness to con- 
viction, the love of truth. — Abuses : Scrupulous adherence to 
noxious principles when ignorantly embraced, excessive re- 
finement in the views of duty and obligation, excess in re- 
morse or self-condemnation. 

17. Hope. — Uses: Tendency to expect future good; it cherishes 

faith. — Abuses : Credulity with respect to the attainment of 
what is desired, absurd expectations of felicity not founded on 
reason. 
18. Wonder. — Uses: The desire of novelty ; admiration of the 
new, the unexpected, the grand, the wonderful, and extraor- 
dinary. — Abuses : Love of the marvellous, and occult ; sense- 
less astonishment; belief in false miracles, in prodigies, ma- 
gic, ghosts, and other supernatural absurdities. — Note. Ye* 
ne ration, Hope, and Wonder > combined, give the tendency 
to religion ; their abuses produce superstition. 

19. Ideality. — Uses: Love of the beautiful and splendid, desire 

of excellence, poetic feeling. — Abuses: Extravagance and 
absurd enthusiasm, preference of the showy and glaring 
to the solid and useful, a tendency to dwell in the regions of 
fancy and to neglect the duties of life. 

20. Wit — Gi ves the feeling of the ludicrous, and disposes to mirth. 

21. Imitation — Copies the manners, gestures, and actions of others 

and appearances in nature generally. 



48 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 




Order II. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES 



Genus. I. EXTERNAL SENSES. 



Feeling or Touch. 

Ta STE. 

Smell. 
Hearing. 

Sight. 



Uses : To bring man into communication 
with external objects, and to enable him 
to enjoy them. — Abuses : Excessive indul- 
gence in the pleasures arising from the 
senses, to the extent of impairing bodily 
health, and debilitating or deteriorating 
the mind. 



Genus II. KNOWING FACULTIES WHICH PERCEIVE THE 
EXISTENCE AND QUALITIES OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

22. Individuality— Takes cognizance of existence and simple facts. 

23. Form — Renders man observant of form. 

24. Size — Gives the idea of space, and enables us to appreciate di- 

mension and distance. 

25. Weight — Communicates the perception of momentum, weight, 

and resistance ; and aids equilibrium. 

26. Colouring— Gives perception of colours and their harmonies. 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 4JP 

Genus III. KNOWING FACULTIES WHICH PERCEIVE 
THE RELATIONS OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

27. Locality — Gives the idea of relative position. 

28. Number. — Gives the talent for calculation. 

29. Order — Communicates the love of physical arrangement. 

30. Eventuality — Takes eognizpnce of occurrences or events. 

31. Time — Gives rise to the perception of duration. 

32. Tune — The sense of Melody and Harmony arises from it. 

33. Language — Gives facility in acquiring a knowledge of arbi* 

trary signs to express thoughts, readiness in the use of them, 
and the power of inventing and recollecting them. 

Genus IV. REFLECTING FACULTIES, WHICH COMPARE, 
JUDGE, AND DISCRIMINATE. 

34. Comparison — Gives the power of discovering analogies, re- 

semblances, and differences. 

35. Casuality — Traces the dependences of phenomena, and the 

relation of cause and effect. 

Observation proves that each of these faculties is con- 
nected with a particular portion of the brain, and that the 
power of manifesting each bears a relation to the size and 
activity of its organ. The organs differ in relative size in 
different individuals, and hence their difference of talents 
and dispositions. This fact is of the greatest importance 
in the philosophy of man ; and the circumstance of its hav- 
ing been unknown until Dr. Gall's discovery of the func- 
tions of the brain, is sufficient to explain the past barren- 
ness of mental science, and to render probable the asser- 
tion, that a great flood of light on this subject is now pour- 
ing forth on the world. These faculties are not all equal 
in excellence and authority ; some are common to man with 
the lower animals, and others are peculiar to man. Before 
comparing the human mind, therefore, with its external con- 
dition, it becomes an object of primary importance to dis- 
cover the relative rank and authority of these different powers. 
If the Animal Faculties are naturally or necessarily su- 
preme — in other words, if man is by nature only an animal 
of superior intelligence — then external creation, if it be 
wisely constituted, may be expected to bear direct reference, 
in its arrangements, to this supremacy ; and to be calcula- 
ted to render him most happy when acting in conformity 
with his animal feeling. If the Moral and Intellectual Fa- 



50 MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 

culties hold the ascendency, then the constitution of e.xter* 
nal nature may be expected to be in harmony with thern-— 
in other words, to confer the highest degree of enjoyment 
on man, when he acts under the guidance of his moral and 
intellectual powers. I am not here teaching Phrenology, 
or developing its principles and evidences, but merely ex- 
plaining it so far as indispensable for the purposes of this 
work. I refer to the Treaties on Phrenology for details. 

SECT. IV. THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH EACH 

OTHER ; OR THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL SENTIMENTS 
AND INTELLECT. 

According to the phrenological theory of human nature, 
the faculties are divided into Propensities common to man 
with the lower animals, Sentiments common to man with 
the lower animals, Sentiments proper to man, and Intellect. 
Every faculty stands in a definite relation to certain exter- 
nal objects ; when it is internally active it desires these ob- 
jects ; when they are presented to it they excite it to 
activity, and delight it with agreeable sensations. Human 
happiness and misery are resolvable into the gratification, 
and denial of gratification, of one or more of our mental 
faculties, or of the feelings connected with our bodily frame. 
The faculties, in themselves, are mere instincts ; the moral 
sentiments and intellect being higher instincts ; than the 
animal propensities. Every faculty is good in itself, but all 
are liable to abuse. Their operations are right only when 
they act in harmony with each other, enlightened intellect 
and moral sentiment holding the supremacy. 

The faculties may be considered as aeting in a variety of 
ways. First, the lower propensities may be viewed as act- 
ing by themselves, each seeking its own gratification but 
without transgressing the limits prescribed by enlightened 
intellect and the moral sentiments : this gratification is legi- 
timate and proper, and the fountain of much enjoyment tot 
human beings. Secondly, The propensities may be con- 
sidered as acting in opposition to the dictates of the moral 
sentiments and intellect : a merchant, for instance, by mis- 
representation of the real qualities of his commodities, may 
obtain a higher price for them than if he spoke the truth ; 
or, bj depreciating unjustly the goods of a rival, he may 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 51 

Attract that rival's customers to himself : By such conduct 
lie would apparently benefit himself, but he would infringe 
the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect ; in other 
words, he would do an injury to the interests of his rival 
proportionate to the undue benefit which he attempted to 
secure to himself : All such manifestations of the propensi- 
ties are abuses, and, when pursued systematically to their 
results, are seen to injure not only the individual against 
whom they are directed, but him also who practises them. 
Thirdly, The moral sentiments may be regarded as acting 
by themselves, each seeking its own gratification : thus Be- 
nevolence may prompt an individual to do acts of kindness, 
and Veneration to perform exercises of devotion. When 
the gratification sought by any one or more of the senti- 
ments does not infringe the duties prescribed by all the other 
sentiments and enlightened intellect, the actions are proper. 
But any one moral sentiment, acting by itself, may run into 
excess— Benevolence, for instance, may instigate to gene- 
rosity at the expense of justice ; Veneration may prompt a 
person to run after sermons abroad, when he should be dis- 
charging his domestic duties, or instructing his children at 
home, — which actions also are abuses. 

Thus there is, 1st, a wide sphere of action provided for 
the propensities, in which each may seek its gratification in 
its own way, without exceeding the limits of morality ; and 
this is a good and proper action : 2dly, There is ample scope 
for the exercise of each of the moral and intellectual facul- 
ties, without infringing the dictates of any of the other fa- 
culties belonging to the same classes ; and this action also 
is good. But, on the other hand, the propensities, and also 
the moral and intellectual faculties, may act singly or in 
groups, in opposition to the dictates of the whole moral 
sentiments and intellectual powers enlightened by know- 
ledge and acting in combination ; and all such actions are 
wrong. Hence right conduct is that which is approved of by 
the whole moral and intellectual faculties, fully enlightened, 
and acting in harmonious combination. This I call the supre- 
macy of the moral sentiments and intellect. 

In maintaining this supremacy, therefore, I do not con- 
sider any of the moral sentiments and intellectual faculties 
singly, or even the whole of them collectively, as sufficient 
to direct conduct by their mere instinctive suggestions. 



63 SUPREMACY OF THIS 

To fit them to discharge this important duty, they must act 
in harmonious combination, and be illuminated by know- 
ledge of science and of moral and religious duty. The 
sources of knowledge are observation and reflection, — ex- 
perience, — and instruction by books, teachers, and all other 
means by which the Creator has provided for the improve- 
ment of the human mind. Whenever their dictates, thus 
combined and enlightened, oppose the solicitations of the 
propensities, the latter must yield, — otherwise, by the con- 
stitution of nature, evil will inevitably ensue. This is 
what I mean by nature being constituted in harmony with 
the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect. 

Phrenology shows that different individuals possess the 
faculties in very different degrees : I do not mean, therefore, 
to say, that in each individual, whatever the proportion of 
his organs may be, the dictates of his moral and intellectual 
powers are rules of conduct not to be disputed. On the 
contrary, in most individuals one or several of the moral or 
intellectual organs are so deficient in size, in proportion to 
the organs of the propensities, that their individual percep- 
tions of duty will be far short of the highest standard. The 
dictates of the moral and intellectual powers, therefore, 
which constitute rules of conduct, are the collective dicta 
of the highest minds illuminated by the greatest knowledge. 

Let us now consider the faculties themselves. First, I 
shall view the propensities as acting alone, uninfluenced by 
the moral and intellectual powers. There is ample scope 
for their proper activity in this way ; but the great distinc- 
tion between the animal faculties and the powers proper to 
man is, that the former do not prompt us to seek the welfare 
of mankind at large : their object is chiefly the preservation 
of the individual himself, his family or his tribe ; while the 
latter have the general happiness of the human race, and 
our duties to God, as their ends. 

The Love of life, and The Appetite for Food, have 
clearly reference to the preservation of the individual alone. 

Even the domestic affections, amiable and respectable as 
they undoubtedly are when combined with the moral feel- 
ings, have self as their chief object. The first three pro- 
pensities, Amative i\Ess, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhe- 
sivENESs, or the group of the domestic affections, desire a 
conjugal partner, offspring, and friends : the obtaining of 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 63 

these affords them delight — the removal of them occasions 
pain. But they do not take an interest in the welfare of 
their objects on their own account. He who loves from Ama- 
tiveness alone is sensual, faithless, and negligent of the 
happiness of its object. He who combines with love spring- 
ing from this propensity, Benevolence, Veneration, Justice, 
and Intellect, will disinterestedly promote the real happi- 
ness of the object of his affection. 

The whole faculties, as I have already repeatedly obser- 
ved, must be gratified harmoniously, or at least the gratifi- 
cation of one or more of them must not offend any of the 
others. For example, suppose the group of the domestic 
affections to be highly interested in an individual, and strong- 
ly to desire to form an alliance with him, but that the per- 
son so loved is improvident and immoral, and altogether an 
object of whom the higher faculties, if left dispassionately 
to survey his qualities, could not approve ; then, if an alli- 
ance be formed with him, under the ungovernable impulses 
of the lower feelings, bitter days of repentance will neces- 
sarily follow, when these begin to languish, and his quali- 
ties give the latter faculties offence. If, on the other hand, 
the domestic affections are guided to an object pleasing to 
the better powers, these themselves will be gratified ; they 
will double the delights afforded by the inferior faculties, 
and render the enjoyment permanent. 

The love of children, springing from Philoprogenitive- 
ness, is the same in kind as that of the miser for his gold ; 
an interest in the object, for the sake of the gratification it 
affords to his own mind, without desiring, or being able to 
distinguish, what is good for the object on its own account. 
This truth is recognised by Sir Walter Scott. He says 
" Elspat's ardent, though selfish affection for her son, in- 
capable of being qualified by a regard for the true interests 
of the unfortunate object of her attachment, resembled the 
instinctive fondness of the animal race for tkeir offspring ; 
and, diving little farther into futurity than one of the infe- 
rior creatures, she only felt that to be separated from Hamish 
was to die." * 

In man, this faculty generally acts along with Benevo- 
lence, and a disinterested desire of the happiness of the child 

♦Chronicles of the Cannongate, vol. i. p. 281. 
5* 



54 SUPREMACY OF TUB 

mingles with, and elevates, the mere instinct of Philopro- 
genitiveness ; but the sources of these two affections are 
different, their degrees vary in different persons and their 
ends also are dissimilar. This is exemplified every day by 
the conduct of mothers, who, although actuated by an in- 
tense instinctive love of their offspring, nevertheless spoil 
them by vicious indulgence, and render them completely 
miserable. If Philoprogenitiveness were capable, by itself, 
of desiring and perceiving the real welfare of children, the 
treatment of them would, in all cases, be rational and bene- 
ficial, in proportion to the degree in which this faculty was 
active ; but this is not consistent with experience. Again, 
Christian mothers, w 7 ho sincerely believe that at death, their 
children pass into everlasting happiness, which is far better 
for them than sojourning on earth, nevertheless show the 
highest indications of bereavement and sorrow on their loss ; 
— thus affording evidence that their love was an instinct 
which gives pain when disappointed, and not a disinterest- 
ed affection concerned exclusively for the happiness of the 
being itself which constituted its object. 

The same observation applies to the affection proceeding 
from Adhesiveness. When this faculty acts alone, it de- 
sires, for its own satisfaction, a friend to love ; but, from its 
own impulses, it is not interested in the welfare of its ob- 
ject. It feels attached to him as a sheep does to its fellows 
of the flock ; but if Benevolence do not act along with it, it 
does nothing for the happiness of that friend. Both Adhe- 
siveness and Philoprogenitiveness tend to excite Benevo- 
lence towards their objects : when this sentiment, however, 
is naturally very weak, the propensities cannot render it 
vividly active. The horse feels melancholy when his com- 
panion is removed ; but the feeling appears to be simply 
one of uneasiness at the absence of an object which grati- 
fied his Adhesiveness. His companion may have been led 
to a richer pasture, or introduced to more agreeable society ; 
yet this does not assuage the distress suffered by him at his 
removal : his tranquility, in short, is restored only by time 
causing the activity of Adhesiveness to subside, or by the 
substitution of another object on which it may exert itself. 
In human nature, the effect of the faculty, when acting 
singly, is the same ; and this accounts for the fact of the 
almost total indifference of many persons who were really 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 56 

attached by Adhesiveness to each other, when one falls into 
misfortune, and becomes a disagreeable object to the pride or 
vanity of the other. Suppose two persons, elevated in rank, 
and possessed of affluence, to have each Adhesiveness, Self- 
Esteem, and Love of Approbation large, with Benevolence 
and Conscientiousness moderate, it is obvious that, while 
both are in prosperity, they may really like each other's so- 
ciety, and feel a reciprocal attachment, because there will be 
mutual sympathy in their Adhesiveness, and the self-Esteem 
and Love of Approbation of each will be gratified by the 
rank and circumstances of the other ; but imagine one of 
them to fall into, misfortune, and to cease to be an object 
gratifying to Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation ; sup- 
pose that he becomes a poor friend instead of a rich and in- 
fluential one ; the harmony between their selfish faculties 
will be broken, and then Adhesiveness in the one who re- 
mains rich will transfer its affection to another individual 
who may gratify it, and also supply agreeable sensations to 
Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation — to a genteel friend, 
in short, who will look well in the eye of the world. 

Much of this conduct occurs in society, and the whining 
complaint is very ancient, that the storms of adversity dis- 
perse friends, just as the wintry blast strips from the forest 
the leaves that gayly adorned it in the sunshine of summer ; 
and many moral sentences have been pointed, and epigrams 
finely turned, on the selfishness and corruption of poor hu- 
man nature. But such friendships were attachments found- 
ed on the lower feelings, which, by their constitution, do not 
regard the welfare of others ; and the desertion complained 
of is the fair and legitimate result of the principles on which 
both parties acted during the gay hours of prosperity. If 
we look at a cast of the head of Sheridan, we shall perceive 
large Adhesiveness, Self-Esteem, and love of Approbation, 
with deficient Casuality, and moderate Conscientiousness. 
He had large Individuality, Comparison, Secretiveness, and 
Imitation, which gave him talents for observation and dis- 
play. When these earned him a brilliant reputation, he 
was surrounded by friends, and he himself probably felt at- 
tachment in return. But he was deficient in morality, and 
this prevented him from loving his friends with a true, dis- 
interested, and honest regard ; he abused their kindness ; and 
as he sank into poverty and wretchedness, and ceased to be 



66 8UPREMACY OF THE 

an honour to them or to excite their Love of Approbation, 
all who were constituted like himself deserted him. But 
the whole connexion was founded on selfish principles 
Sheridan honoured them, and they flattered Sheridan ; and 
the abandonment was the natural consequence of the ces- 
sation of gratification to their selfish feelings. I shall, by 
and by, point out the sources of a loftier and purer friend 
ship, and its effects. It was only those individuals who act- 
ed from Adhesiveness combined with the higher feelings, 
that remained attached to him through all his misfortunes. 
Combativeness and Destructiveness also, when acting 
in combination with the other propensities, do not in their 
own nature seek the happiness of others. If aggression is 
committed against us, Combativeness shows the front of 
opposition and repels the attack ; Destructiveness inflicts 
pain or injury, to make the aggressor desist, or as ven- 
geance for the offence. Both feelings are obviously very . 
different from Benevolence. I do not say that, in them- 
selves, they are despicable or sinful ; on the contrary, they 
are necessary, and, when legitimately employed, highly 
useful ; but still their first and instinctive object is the pre- 
servation of self. , 

Secretiveness suppresses feelings that are improper to be 
manifested, and that might injure ua with other individuals, 
and restrains the faculties generally. It also desires to find 
out secrets that may enable its possessor to guard self 
against hostile plots or designs. In itself it does not desire, 
in any respect, the benefit of others. 

The next organ is Acquisitiveness. It blindly desires 
to possess, is pleased with accumulating, and suffers great 
uneasiness in being deprived of possessions ; but its object 
is not the happiness of others. Like all the other faculties, it 
is highly useful, for even Benevolence cannot give away until 
Acquisitiveness has acquired. There are friendships, par- 
ticularly among mercantile men, founded on Adhesiveness 
and Acquisitiveness, just as in fashionable life they are 
founded on Adhesiveness and Love of Approbation. Two 
individuals fall into a course of dealing, by which each 
reaps profit from transactions with the other : this leads to 
intimacy ; Adhesiveness mingles its influence, and a feeling 
of attachment is at last produced. The moment, however, 
that the Acquisitiveness of the one suffers the least inroad 






MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 57 

from that of the other, and their interests clash, they are apt, 
if nohigher principle unite them, to become bitter enemies. 
It is probable that, while these fashionable and commercial 
friendships last, the parties may profess great reciprocal 
esteem and regard, and that, when a rupture takes place, 
the one who is depressed or disobliged, may recall these 
expressions, and charge the other with hypocrisy ; but they 
really were not insincere. From Adhesiveness and gratified 
Love of Approbation or Acquisitiveness, each probably felt 
something which he coloured over, and perhaps believed to 
De disinterested friendship ; but if each would honestly probe 
his own conscience, he would be obliged to acknowledge 
that the whole basis of the connexion was selfish — and 
hence, that the result is just what ought to be expected by 
every man who places his reliance for happiness chiefly on 
the lower feelings. 

Self-Esteem is, in its very essence and name selfish : 
it is the love of ours^ives, and the esteem of ourselves par 
excellence. 

Love of Approbation, although many think otherwise, 
does not in itself desire the happiness of others. Its object 
is applause to ourselves, to be esteemed ourselves ; and if 
it prompt us to do services, or to say agreeable things to 
others, this is not from pure love of them, but for the sake 
of obtaining the self-gratification afforded by their good 
opinion. 

Suppose, for example, that we are acquainted with a per- 
son who has committed an error in some official duty, — who- 
has done or said something that the public disapprove of, 
and which we see to be really wrong, — Benevolence and 
Conscientiousness would prompt us to lay before our friend 
the very head and front of his offending, and conjure him 
to forsake his error, and make public amends : — Love of 
Approbation, on the other hand, would simply desire to 
gain his applause, by making ourselves agreeable to him, 
without looking farther. If unenlightened, it would either 
render us averse to speak to him at all on the subject, lest 
he should be offended ; or prompt us to extenuate his fault, 
to gloss it over, and to represent it either as a simple mistake 
or as extremely trivial. If we analyze the motive which 
prompts to this course, we shall find that it is not love of 
our friend or consideration for his welfare — but fear lest, by 



58 SUPREMACY OF THE 

our presenting to him disagreeable truths, he should fee! 
offended with us, and deprive us of the gratification afford- 
ed by his good opinion. 

Another illustration may be given. A manufacturer in 
a country town, having acquired a considerable fortune by 
trade, applied part of it in building a princely mansion, 
which he furnished in the richest and most expensive style 
of fashion. He asked his customers, near and distant, to 
visit him, and introduced them into an apartment that 
dazzled them with splendour. This excited their curiosity 
and wonder, which was precisely the effect he desired ; he 
then led them over his whole suite of rooms, and displayed 
before them his grandeur and taste. In doing so, he affected 
to act as if he were conferring a high pleasure on them, and 
believed that he was filling their minds with an intense ad- 
miration of his greatness ; but the real effect was very dif- 
ferent. The motive of his conduct was not love of them, 
or regard for their happiness or welfare : it was not Bene- 
volence to others that prompted him to build the palace ; it 
was not Veneration ; it was not Conscientiousness. The 
fabric sprang from Self- Esteem and Love of Approbation, 
combined, no doubt, with considerable Intellect and Ideality. 
In leading his humble brethren in trade through the princely 
halls, over the costly carpets and amidst the gilded mirrors 
and rich array that everwhere met their eyes, he exulted 
in the consciousness of his own importance, and asked for 
their admiration, not as an expression of respect for any 
real benefit conferred upon them, but as the much relished 
food of his own selfish vanity. 

Let us attend, in the next place, to the effect which this 
display would produce on those to whom it was addressed. 
To gain their esteem or affection, it would have been ne- 
cessary to manifest towards them Benevolence, respect, and 
justice ; for, to cause another individual to love us, we must 
make him the object of our moral sentiments, which have 
his good and happiness for their end. Here, however, 
these were not the inspiring motives, and the want of them 
would be instinctively felt. The customers who possessed 
the least shrewdness would ascribe the whole exhibition to 
the vanity of the owner, and they would either pity, or envy 
and hate him : if their own moral sentiments predominated, 
they would pity him ; if their Self-Esteem and Love of 



MORAL 8E-XTIMEXTS A*D l!*TELLrfCT. 69 

- Approbation were paramount, they would^ envy liis magni- 
ficence, yet be offended at his assumed superiority, and 
would hate him. It would be only the silliest and the 
vainest who would be at all gratified ; and their satisfaction 
would arise from the feeling, that they could now return to 
their own circle, and boast how great a friend they had, and 
in how grand a style they had been entertained — this display 
being a direct gratification of their own Self-Esteem and 
Love of Approbation, by identifying themselves with him. 
Even this pleasure would exist only where the admirer 
was so humble in rank as to entertain no idea of rivalship, 
and so limited in intellect and morality as not to perceive 
the worthlessness of the qualities by which he was capti- 
vated. — 

In like manner, when persons, even of more sense than 
the manufacturer here alluded to, give entertainments to their 
friends, they sometimes fail in their object from the same 
cause. Their leading motive is a wish to show off them- 
selves, much more than to confer a real happiness upon their 
acquaintances ; and, by the unbending law of human nature, 
this must fail in exciting goodwill and pleasure in the minds 
of those to whom it is addressed, because it disagreeably 
affects their Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation. In 
short, to be really successful in gratifying our friends, we 
must keep our own selfish faculties in due subordination, 
and pour out copious streams of real kindness from the 
higher sentiments, animated and elevated by intellect ; and 
all who have experienced the heartfelt joy and satisfaction 
attending an entertainment conducted on this principle, will 
never quarrel with the homeliness of the fare, or feel uneasy 
about the absence of fashion in the service. 

Cautiousness is the next faculty, and is a sentiment in- 
stituted to prompt us to shun danger. Acting apart from 
the moral sentiments, it would seek first to protect self 
from evil ; and this is its essential object. 

This terminates the list of the Feelings common to man 
with the lower animals,* and which, as we have seen, when 

* Benevolence is stated in the works on Phrenology as common to 
man with the lower animals ; but in these creatures it appears to 
produce rather passive meekness and good nature, than actual desire 
for each other's happiness. In the human race, this last is its proper 



60 SUPREMACY OF THE 

acting instinctively, either singly or in combination with 
each other, apart from the moral powers, do not seek the 
welfare of others as their aim, but have self-preservation and 
self-gratification as their leading objects. They are given 
for the protection and advantage of our individual nature, 
and, when manifested in their proper spheres, are highly 
useful, and also respectable, viewed with reference to that 
end ; but they are sources of innumerable evils when allow- 
ed to usurp the ascendency over the moral faculties, and to 
become the leading springs of our social conduct. 

I proceed to notice the Moral Sentiments,which are pro- 
per to man, and to point out their objects and relations. 

Benevolence has direct reference to other beings. It 
desires purely and disinterestedly the happiness of its ob- 
jects : it loves for the sake of the person beloved ; if he be 
well, and the sunbeams of prosperity shine warmly around 
him, it exults and delights in his felicity. It desires a dif- 
fusion of joy, and renders the feet swift and the arm strong 
in the cause of charity and love. By the Beneficence of the 
Creator, it is, when gratified, the source of great enjoyment 
to its possessor ; insomuch that some authors have asserted, 
that men are benevolent for the sake of this pleasure. But 
this is not correct. The impulse is instinctive, and acts 
before the intellect has anticipated the results. 

Veneration also has reference to others. It looks up 
with a pure and elevated emotion to the being to whom it is 
directed, whether God or our fellow-men, and delights in 
the contemplation of their venerable and admirable qualities. 
It renders self lowly, humble, and submissive. God is its 
highest object. 

Hope spreads its gay wing in the boundless regions of fu- 
turity. It desires good, and expects it to come : " it incites 
us indeed to aim at a good which we can live without ; but 
its influence is soft, soothing, and happy. When combined 
with the propensities, it expects good to self ; when with the 
moral sentiments, it anticipates universal happiness. 

Ideality delights in perfection from the pure pleasure of 

function ; and, viewed in this light, 1 treat of it as exclusively a 
human faculty. 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 61 

contemplating it. So far as it is concerned, the picture, the 
statue, the landscape, or the mansion, on which it abides 
with the intensest rapture, is as pleasing, although the pro- 
perty of another, as if all its own. It is a spring that is 
touched by the beautiful wherever it exists ; and hence its 
means of enjoyment are as unbounded as the universe. 

Wonder seeks the new and the striking, and is delighted 
with change ; but there is no desire of appropriation to self 
in its longings. 

Conscientiousness stands in the midway between self 
and other individuals. It implies the existence of both sel- 
fish and social tendencies in man, for one of its functions is 
to regulate their contending solicitations. It is a regulator 
of our animal feelings, and points out the limit which they 
must not pass. It desires to do to another as we would have 
another to do to us, and is the guardian of the welfare of our 
fellow-men, while it sanctions and supports our personal feel- 
ings within the bounds of due moderation. It is a noble feel- 
ing ; and the mere consciousness of its being bestowed upon 
us, ought to bring home to onr minds an intense conviction 
that the Author of the universe is at once wise and just. 

The sentiments now enumerated may be erroneously di- 
rected, or may act in excess, and, in either case, may give 
rise to abuses, such as profusion, superstition, or extrava- 
gant refinement. But the grand distinction between them 
and the propensities is this : The propensities,acting even 
legitimately — singly, or in combination with each other, but 
not in combination with the moral sentiments, — have indi- 
vidual interests for their direct objects, and do not actively 
desire the happiness of other beings for the sake of these 
beings themselves : the actions of the lower animals afford 
illustrations in point. The moral powers, on the other hand, 
acting in harmonious combination with each other, and di- 
rected hy enlightened intellect, desire the welfare of other 
beings as their direct object : the purest and the best of men 
afford in their conduct examples of the truth of this remark.* 

* The classification of the moral sentiments in the phrenological 
system is not perfect : It includes Wit, Imitation, Firmness, and 
Wonder, which are not necessarily or essentially moral. By " the 
moral sentiments," when used as a general expression, I mean Be- 
nevolence Veneration, and Conscientiousness, aided by Hope and 
Ideality. 

6 



62 SUPREMACY OF THE 

Intellect is universal in its applications. It may become 
the handmaid of any of the faculties ; it may devise a plan to 
murder or to bless, to steal or to bestow, to rear up or to de- 
stroy ; but, as its proper use is to observe the different objects 
of creation, to mark their relations, and to direct the propen- 
sities and sentiments to their proper and legitimate enjoy- 
ments, it has a boundless sphere of activity, and, when pro- 
perly exercised and applied, is a source of high and inexhaus- 
tible delight. 

The world is so constituted, that all necessary and really 
advantageous gratifications of the propensities, are compati- 
ble with the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellectual 
powers when acting in harmonious combination , and that 
all gratifications of the propensities which are disapproved ' 
of by the higher powers, are, in their ultimate consequences, 
hurtful to the individual himself. In like manner, all mani- 
festations of the higher sentiments, when acting in harmo- 
nious combination and directed by enlightened intellect, 
although they tend directly to the welfare of others, indi- 
rectly contribute, in a high degree, to the enjoyment of tho 
virtuous agent. 

Keeping in view the great difference now pointed out be- 
tween the animal and properly human faculties, the reader 
will perceive that three consequences follow from the con- 
stitution of these powers 

First, All the faculties, when in excess, are insatiable, and, 
from the constitution of the world, never can be satisfied. 
They indeed may be soon satisfied on any particular occasion. 
Food will soon fill the stomach ; success in a speculation will 
render Acquisitiveness quiescent for the moment ; a triumph 
will satisfy for the time Self-Esteem and Love of Approba- 
tion ; a long concert will fatigue Tune ; and a tedious dis- 
course will afflict Causality. But after repose they will all 
renew their solicitations. They must all therefore be regu- 
lated, particularly the propensities and lower sentiments. 
These having self as their primary objects, and being blind 
to consequences, do not set limits to their own indulgence ; 
and, when allowed to exceed the boundaries prescribed by the 
superior sentiments and intellect, lead directly to misery to 
the individual, and injury to society. 

As this circumstance attending the propensities is of great 
practical importance, I shall make a few observations in 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT 63 

elucidation of it. The births and lives of children depend 
upon circumstances over which unenlightened men have but 
a limited control ; and hence an individual, whose supreme 
happiness springs from the gratification of Philoprogenitive- 
ness, may, by the predominance of that propensity and the 
inactivity of the higher powers, be led to neglect or infringe 
the natural laws on which the lives and welfare of children 
depend, to treat them irrationally, and thus to defeat his own 
desires. He will be in constant danger of anguish and dis- 
appointment, from the death of his children, or from their 
undutiful conduct. Besides, Philoprogenitiveness, acting in 
each parent along with Self-Esteem and Love of Approba- 
tion, would desire that his children should possess the highest 
rank and greatest wealth, and be distinguished for the most 
splendid talents. Now the highest, the greatest, and the 
most splendid of any qualities, necessarily imply the exis- 
tence of inferior degrees, and are attainable only by few. 
The animal faculties, therefore, must be restrained in their 
desires, and directed to their objects by the moral sentiments., 
and by intellect, otherwise they will inevitably lead to disap- 
pointment. In like manner, Acquisitiveness desires wealth; 
but as nature affords annually only a limited quantity of 
grain, cattle, fruit, flax, and other articles, from which food, 
clothing, and wealth, are manufactured ; and as this quan- 
tity, divided equally among all the members of a state, would 
afford but a moderate portion to each ; it is self-evident, that, 
if all desire to acquire and possess a large amount, ninety- 
nine out of every hundred must be disappointed. This dis- 
appointment, from the very constitution of nature, is inevi- 
table to the greater number ; and when individuals form 
schemes of aggrandisement, originating from desires commu- 
nicated by the animal faculties alone, they would do well to 
keep this law of nature in view. When we look around us, 
we see how few become rich ; how few succeed in accom- 
plishing all their lofty anticipations for the advancement of 
their children ; and how few attain the summit of ambition, 
compared with the multitudes who fail. The animal facul- 
ties exist in all men, and when they act without regulation, 
they prompt one man to defeat the gratification of another. 
All this arises, not from error and imperfection in the insti- 
tutions of the Creator, but from blindness in men to their 
own nature, to the nature of external objects, and to tho 



64 SUPREMACY OF THE 

relations established between them ; in short, from blindness 
to the principles of the divine administration of the world. 
Secondly, The animal propensities being inferior in their 
nature to the human faculties, their gratifications, when not 
approved of by the latter, leave a painful feeling of discon- 
tent and dissatisfaction in the mind, occasioned by the secret 
disavowal of their excessive action by the higher feelings. 
Suppose, for example, a young person to set out in life 
with ardent wishes to acquire wealth, and to attain honour 
and distinction. Imagine him to rise early and sit up late ; 
to put forth all the energies of a powerful mind in buying, sel- 
ling, and becoming rich ; and to be successful : it is obvious, 
that Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, had 
a small share in prompting him to this course of action ; and 
that, in pursuing it, they have not received direct and in- 
tended gratification. They may have anxiously and con- 
stantly watched the animal faculties, longing for the hour 
when they would say Enough ; their whole occupation, in 
the mean time, having been to restrain them from such gross 
excesses as would have defeated their own ends. 

Suppose, then, this individual to have reached the evening 
of life, and to look back on the pleasures and pains of his 
past existence : he must feel that there has been vanity and 
vexation of spirit, — or the want of a satisfying portion ; be- 
cause the highest of his faculties have not been the motives 
of his conduct, and have received no direct and adequate gra- 
tification. If an individual has, through life, aimed at ac- 
quirmg reputation, he will find that the real affection and 
esteem of mankind which he has gained, will be great or small 
in proportion to the degree in which he has manifested, in 
his habitual conduct, the higher or the lower faculties. If 
men have seen him selfish in his pursuit of wealth, selfish in 
his domestic affections., selfish in his ambition ; although he 
may have pursued his objects without positive encroachment 
on the rights of others, they will still look coldly on him — 
they will feel no glow of affection towards him, no elevated 
respect, and no sincere admiration. If he possess penetra- 
tion, he will see and feel that this is the case ; but the fault 
is his own : love, esteem, and sincere respect, arise, by the 
Creator's laws, from contemplating, not plodding selfish fac- 
ulties, but Benevolence, Veneration, and Justice, as the mo 
tives and ends of our conduct ; and the individual supposed 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND. INTELLECT. 65 

has reaped the natural and legitimate produce of the soil 
which he cultivated, and the seed which he sowed. 

Thirdly, The higher feelings, when acting in harmonious 
combination, and directed by enlightened intellect, have a 
boundless scope for gratification : their least indulgence is 
delightful, and their highest activity is bliss ; they cause no 
repentance, leave no void, but render life a scene at once of 
peaceful tranquillity and sustained felicity : and, what is of 
much importance, conduct proceeding from their dictates 
carries in its train the highest gratification to the animal pro- 
pensities themselves, of which the latter are susceptible. At 
the same time, it must be remembered, that ' the sentiments 
err, and lead also to evil, when not regulated by enlightened 
intellect ; that intellect in its turn must give due weight to 
the existence and desires of both the propensities and the 
sentiments, as elements in the human constitution, before it 
can arrive at sound conclusions regarding conduct ; and that 
rational actions and true happiness flow from the gratifiction 
of all the faculties in harmony with each other, — the moral 
sentiments and intellect bearing the directing sway. 

This proposition may be shortly illustrated. Imagine an 
individual to commence life, with the thorough conviction 
that the higher sentiments are the superior powers, and that 
they ought to be the sources of his actions — the first effect 
would be to cause him to look habitually outward on other 
men and on his Creator, instead of looking inward on him- 
self as the object of his highest and chief regard. Benevo- 
lence would infuse into his mind the feeling that there are 
other human beings as dear to the Creator and as much en- 
titled to enjoyment as himself ; and that his duty is to seek 
no gratification to himself which is calculated to prove in- 
jurious to them, but, on the contrary, to act so as to confer 
on them, by his daily exertions, all the services in his power : 
Veneration would give a strong feeling of reliance on the 
power and wisdom of God, that such conduct would conduce 
to the highest gratification of all his faculties ; it would add 
also an habitual respect for his fellow men, as beings de- 
serving his regard, and to whose reasonable wishes he was 
bound to yield a willing and sincere obedience : Lastly, Con- 
scientiousness would prompt him habitually to restrain his 
animal desires, so as to prevent the slightest abuse of then* 
which would prove injurious to his fellow men. 
6* 



66 SUPREMACY OF THE 

Let us trace, then, the effect which these principles would 
produce in ordinary life. Suppose a friendship formed by 
such an individual : one of his fundamental principles being 
Benevolence, which inspires with a pure and disinterested 
regard for other men, he would desire his friend's welfare 
for his friend's sake. Next, Veneration, acting along with 
intellect, would reinforce this love, by the conviction that it 
was entirely conformable to the law of God, and would be 
acceptable in His sight. It would also add a habitual defer- 
ence towards the friend himself, which would render the 
manner pleasing to him, and the deportment yielding and 
accommodating in all things porper to be forborne or done. 
Thirdly, Conscientiousness, ever on the watch, would pro- 
claim the duty of making no unjust demands on the good 
nature of a friend, but of limiting the whole intercourse with 
him to an interchange of kindness, good offices, and recip- 
rocal affection. Intellect, acting along with these princi- 
ples, would point out, as an indispensable requisite to such 
an attachment, that the friend himself should be so far under 
the influence of the moral sentiments as to be able, in some 
degree,to satisfy them ; for, if he were immoral, selfish, vain- 
ly ambitious, or, in short, under the habitual influence of the 
propensities, the sentiments could not love and respect him : 
they might pity him as unfortunate, but love him they could 
not, because this is impossible by the very laws of their con- 
stitution. 

Let us now attend to the degree in which such a friend- 
ship would gratify the lower propensities. In the first place, 
how would Adhesiveness exult and rejoice in such an 
attachment ! It would be filled with delight, because if the 
intellect were convinced that the friend habitually acknow- 
ledged the supremacy of the higher sentiments, Adhesive- 
ness might pour forth all its ardour, and cling to its object 
with the closest bonds of affection. The friend would not 
encroach on us for evil, because his Benevolence and Jus- 
tice would oppose this ; he would not lay aside restraint, 
and break through the bonds of affection by undue familiari- 
ty, because Veneration would forbid this ; he would not in- 
jure us in our name, person, or reputation, because Con- 
scientiousness, Veneration, and Benevolence, all combined, 
would prevent such conduct. Here, then, Adhesiveness, 
freed from the fear of evil, of deceit, and of dishonour 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 67 

(because such a friend could not possibly fall into dishonour,) 
would be at liberty to take its deepest draught of affection- 
ate attachment ; it wo aid receive a gratilication which it is 
impossible it could attain while acting in combination with 
the purely selfish faculties. What delight too, would such 
a friendship afford to Self-Esteem and love of Approbation ! 
There would be a legitimate approval of ourselves, arising 
from a survey of pure motives and just and benevolent 
actions. Love of Approbation, also, would be gratified in 
the highest degree ; for every act of affection, every expres- 
sion of esteem, from such a friend, would be so purified by 
Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, that it 
would form the legitimate food on which Love of Approba- 
tion might feast and be satisfied : it would fear no hollow- 
ness beneath, no tattling in absence, no secret smoothing 
over for the sake of mere effect, no envyings, no jealousies. 
In a word, friendship founded on the higher sentiments as 
the ruling motives, would delight the mind with gladness 
and sunshine, and gratify all the faculties, animal, moral, 
and intellectual, in harmony with each other. 

By this illustration, the reader will understand more clear- 
ly what I mean by the harmony of the faculties. The 
fashionable and commercial friendships of which I spoke 
gratified the propensities of Adhesiveness, Love of Appro- 
bation, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness, but left out, as 
fundamental principles, all the higher sentiments : — there 
was, therefore, in these instances, a want of harmonious 
gratification to the whole faculties, which want gave rise to 
a feeling of uncertainty, and of the absence of full satisfac- 
tion ; it permitted only a mixed and imperfect enjoyment 
while the friendship lasted, and led to a feeling of painful 
disappointment, or of vanity and vexation, when a rupture 
occurred. The error, in such cases, consists in founding 
attachment to the lower faculties, seeing that they, by them- 
selves, are not calculated to form a stable basis of affection ; 
instead of building it on them and the higher sentiments, 
which acting together, afford a foundation for real, lasting, 
and satisfactory friendship. In complaining of the hollow- 
ness of attachments springing from the lower faculties ex- 
clusively, we are like men who should try to build a pyramid 
on its smaller end, and then speak of the unkindness of 
Providence, and lament the hardness of their fate, when it 



65 SUPREMACY OF THE 

fell. A similar analysis of all other pleasures founded on 
the animal propensities chiefly, would exhibit similar results. 
Happiness, therefore, must be viewed by men as connected 
with the exercise of the three great classes of faculties ; the 
moral sentiments and intellect exercising the directing and 
controlling sway, before it can be permanently attained. 

Many men, on arriving at the close of life, complain of 
all its pursuits and enjoyments having proved vanity and 
vexation of spirit ; but, to my mind, this is just an intima- 
tion that the plan of their lives has been selfish, that they 
missed the right method of doing good, and that they 
have sought for pleasure, not in the legitimate use, but in 
foolish abuses of their faculties. I cannot conceive that the 
hour of death should cause the mind to feel all acts of kind- 
ness done to others, — all exercises of devotion performed in 
a right spirit, — all deeds of justice executed, — all rays of 
knowledge disseminated — during life, as vain, unprofitable, 
and unconsoling, even at the moment of our leaving for 
ever this sublunary scene. On the contrary, such actions 
appear to me to be those which the mind would then rejoice 
to pass in review, as having afforded real enjoyment, and 
left behind us the greatest permanent benefits to our fellow 



SECT. V. THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH 

EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

Having considered man as a physical being, and briefly 
adverted to the adaptation of his constitution to the physi- 
cal laws of creation ; having viewed him as an organized 
being, and traced the relations of his organic structure to 
his external circumstances ; having taken a rapid survey of 
his faculties as an animal, moral, and intellectual being, — 
with their uses and the forms of their abuses ; and having 
contrasted these faculties with each other, and discovered 
the supremacy of the Moral Sentiments and Intellect; I 
proceed to compare his faculties with external objects, in or- 
der to discover what provision has been made for their gra- 
tification. 

Amativeness is a feeling obviously necessary for the con- 
tinuance of the species ; and one which, properly regula- 



FACULTIES OP MAN COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 69 

ted, is not offensive to reason : — opposite sexes exist to pro- 
vide for its gratification.* 

Philoprogenitiveness is given, — and offspring exist. 

Concentrativeness is conferred, — and the other faculties 
are its objects. 

Adhesiveness is given, — and country and friends exist. 

Combativeness is bestowed, — and physical and moral 
obstacles exist, to meet and subdue which, courage is ne 
cessary. 

Destructiveness is given, — and man is constituted with 
a carnivorous stomach, and animals to be killed and eaten 
exist. Besides, the whole combinations of creation are 
in a state of decay and renovation. In the animal kingdom 
almost every species of creature is the prey of some other ; 
and the faculty of Destructiveness places the human mind 
in harmony with this order of creation. Destruction makes 
way for renovation ; the act of renovation furnishes occa- 
sion for the activity of our other powers ; and activity is 
pleasure. That destruction is a natural institution is un- 
questionable. Not only has nature taught the spider to con- 
struct a web for the purpose of ensnaring flies that it may 
devour them, and constituted beasts of prey with carnivo- 
rous teeth ; but she has formed even plants, such as the 
Drosera, to catch and kill flies, and use them for food. De- 
structiveness is also the source of resentment and indigna- 
tion — a most important defensive as well as vindicatory pur- 
pose. It is a check upon undue encroachment, and tends 
to constrain mankind to pay regard to the rights and feel- 
ings of each other. When properly regulated, it is an able 
assistant to justice. 

Constructiveness is given, — and materials for construct- 
ing artificial habitations, raiment, ships, and various other 
fabrics that add to the enjoyment of life, are the objects 
which give it scope. 

Acquisitiveness is bestowed, — and property exists, ca- 
pable of being collected, preserved, and applied to use. 

Secretiveness is given, — and the manifestations of our 
faculties require to be restrained, until fit occasions and 

* The nature and sphere of activity of the phrenological faculties 
is explained at length in the " System of Phrenology," to which I 
beg leave to refer. Here lean only indicate general Ideas. 



TO FACULTIES OF MAW 

legitimate objects present themselves for their gratification; 
Which restraint is rendered not only possible but agreeable, 
by the propensity in question. While we suppress our emo- 
tions, ideas, designs, or opinions, and confine them within 
the limits of our own consciousness, we exercise and gratify 
this faculty in the very act of doing so. 

Self-Esteem is given, — and we have an individual exis- 
tence and individual interests, as its objects. 

Love of Approbation is bestowed, — and we are sur- 
rounded by our fellow men, whose good opinion is the ob- 
ject of its desire. 

Cautiousness is admirably adapted to the nature of the 
external world. The human body is combustible, is liable 
to be destroyed by violence, to suffer injury from extreme 
wet and winds, &c. ; and it is necessary for us to be habi- 
tually watchful to avoid these sources of calamity. Ac- 
cordingly, Cautiousness is bestowed on us as an ever- watch- 
ful sentinel, constantly whispering " Take care." There is 
ample scope for the legitimate and pleasurable exercise of 
all our faculties, without running into these evils, provided 
we know enough, and are watchful enough ; and therefore 
Cautiousness is not overwhelmed with inevitable terrors. 
It serves merely as a warder to excite us to beware of sud- 
den and unexpected danger ; it keeps the other faculties at 
their post, by furnishing a stimulus to them to observe and 
to trace consequences, that safety may be insured; and, 
when these other faculties do their duty in proper form, the 
impulses of Cautiousness, instead of being painful, are the 
reverse ; they communicate a feeling of safety, which is ex- 
ceedingly agreeable. Hence this faculty appears equally 
benevolent in its design, as the others which we have con- 
templated. It is clear that the gift of an organ of Cautious- 
ness implied that man was to be placed in a field of danger. 
It is adapted to a world like the present, but would be at va- 
riance with a scene into which no evil could intrude. 

Here, then, we perceive a beautiful provision made for sup- 
porting the activity of the lower propensities, and affording 
them legitimate gratification. These powers are conferred 
on us clearly to support our animal nature, and to place us 
in harmony with the external objects of creation. Far 
from being injurious or base in themselves, they possess the 
dignity of utility, and are sources of high enjoyment, when 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 71 

legitimately indulged. The phrenologist, therefore, would 
never seek to extirpate them, or to weaken them too much. 
He desires only to see their excesses controlled, and their 
exercise directed in accordance with the great institutions 
and designs of the Creator. Theologians who enforce the 
corruption of human nature, would do well to consider 
whether man as originally constituted possessed the organs 
of these propensities or not. If he did possess them, it 
will be incumbent on them to show the objects of them in 
a world where there was no sorrow, sin, death, or danger. 
If these organs were bestowed only after the fall, the ques- 
tion will remain to be solved, whether man with new organs 
added to his brain, and new propensities to his mind, con- 
tinued the same being, as when these did not form parts of 
his constitution. Or, finally, they may consider whether 
the existence of these organs, and of an external world 
adapted to them, does not prove that man, as he now exists, 
is actually the same being as when he was created, and that 
his corruption consists in his tendency to abuse his facul- 
ties, and not in any inherent viciousness attributable to his 
nature itself. 

The next class of faculties is that embracing the Moral 
Sentiments proper to man. These are the following : 

Benevolence is given, — and sentient and intelligent 
beings are created, whose happiness we are able to increase, 
thereby affording it scope and delight. It is an error to 
imagine, that creatures in misery are the only objects of 
benevolence, and that it has no function but to experience 
pity. It is a wide-spreading fountain of generous feeling, 
desiring for its gratification not only the removal of pain^ 
but the maintenance and augmentation of positive enjoy- 
ment ; and the happier it can render its objects, the more 
complete are its satisfaction and delight. Its exercise, like 
that of all the other faculties, is a source of great pleasure 
to the individual himself; and nothing can be conceived 
more admirably adapted for affording it exercise, than the 
system of creation exhibited on earth. From the nature 
of the human faculties, each individual, without injuring 
himself, has it in his power to confer prodigious benefits, 
or, in other words, to pour forth the most copious streams 



72 FACULTIES OF MAX 

of benevolence on others, by legitimately gratifying their 
various feelings and intellectual faculties. 

Veneration. — The highest object of this faculty is the 
Divine Being ; and I assume here the existence of God as 
capable of demonstration. The very essay in which I am 
now engaged, is an attempt at an exposition of some of his 
attributes, as manifested in this world. If we find wisdom 
and benevolence in his works, unchangeableness and no 
shadow of turning in his laws, perfect harmony in each de- 
partment of creation ; and if we shall discover that the evils 
which afflict us are much less the direct objects of his 
arrangements than the consequences of ignorant neglect 
of institutions intended for our enjoyment, — then we shall 
acknowledge in the Divine Being an object whom we may 
love with all our soul, and reverence with the deepest emo- 
tions of veneration, and on whom Hope and Conscientious- 
ness may repose with a perfect and unhesitating reliance. 
The exercise of this sentiment is in itself a great positive 
enjoyment, when the object is in harmony with our other 
faculties. Farther, its activity disposes us to yield obedience 
to the Creator's laws, the object of which is our own hap- 
piness ; and hence its exercise, in the highest degree, is pro- 
vided for. Revelation unfolds the character and intentions 
of God where reason cannot penetrate. 

Hope is given, — and our understanding by discovering 
the laws of nature, is enabled to penetrate into the future. 
This sentiment, then is gratified by the absolute reliance 
which Causality convinces us we may place on the stability 
and wisdom of the divine arrangements : its legitimate ex- 
ercise, in reference to this life, is to give us a vivifying faith 
that good is attainable if we use the proper means, and that 
while we suffer evil we are undergoing a chastisement for 
having neglected the institutions of the Creator, the object 
of which punishment is to urge us back into the right path. 
It is a very powerful alleviator of our afflictions. Revela- 
tion presents to Hope the certainty of a life to come, and 
directs all our faculties in points of Faith. 

Ideality is bestowed, — and not only is external nature 
invested with the most exquisite loveliness, but a capacity 
for moral and intellectual refinement is given to us, by which 
we may rise in the scale of excellence, and, at every step 
of our progress, reap direct enjoyment from this sentiment. 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECT8. 73 

Its constant desire is for "something more exquisite still.** 
In its own immediate impulses it is delightful, and external 
nature and our own faculties respond to its call. 

Wonder prompts us to admiration, and desires something 
new. When we contemplate man endowed with intellect 
to discover a Deity and to comprehend his whole works, we 
cannot doubt that Wonder is provided with objects for its 
intensest exercise ; and when we view him placed in a world 
where old things are constantly passing away, and a system 
of renovation is incessantly proceeding, we see at once how 
vast a provision is made for the gratification of his desire 
of novelty, and how admirably it is calculated to impel his 
other faculties to action. 

Conscientiousness exists, — and it has a wide field of ex- 
ercise in regulating the rights and interests of the individual 
in relation to other men and to society. The existence of 
selfish propensities and disenterested emotions, demands a 
power to arbitrate between them, and to regulate both, and 
such is the sentiment of Conscientiousness. To afford it 
full satisfaction, it is necessary to prove that all the divine in- 
stitutions are founded in justice. This is a point whicn 
many regard as involved in much obscurity ; I shall endea- 
vour in this Essay to lift the veil in part, for to me justice 
appears to flow through every divine institution. 

One difficulty, in regard to Conscientiousness, long ap- 
peared inexplicable ; it was, how to reconcile with benevo- 
lence the institution by which this faculty visits us with re- 
morse, after offences are actually committed, instead of 
arresting our hands by an irresistible veto before sinning, 
so as to save us from the perpetration altogether. The pro- 
blem is solved by the principle, That happiness consists in 
the activity of our faculties, and that the arrangement of 
punishment after the offence, is far more conducive to ac- 
tivity than the opposite. For example : if we desired to 
enjoy the highest gratification in exploring a new country, 
replete with the most exquisite beauties of scenery and the 
most captivating natural productions ; and if we found in 
our path precipices that gratified Ideality in the highest de- 
gree, but which endangered life when, neglecting the law 
of gravitation, we advanced so near as to fall over them ; 
whether would it be more bountiful in Providence to send 
an invisible attendant with un, who, whenever we were about 
7 



74 FACULTIES OF MAN 

to approach the brink, should interpose a barrier, and fairly 
cut short our advance, without requiring us to bestow one 
thought upon the subject and without our knowing when to 
expect it and when not ; — or to leave all open, but to confer 
on us, as he has done, eyes fitted to see the precipice, faculties 
to comprehend the law of gravitation, and Cautiousness to 
make us fear the infringement of it, — and then to leave us 
to enjoy the scene in perfect safety if we used these powers, 
but to fall over and suffer pain or death if we neglected to 
exercise them ? It is obvious that the latter arrangement 
would give far more scope to our various powers ; and if 
active faculties are the sources of pleasure, as will be shown 
in the next chapter, then it would contribute more to our 
enjoyment than the other. Now, Conscientiousness punish- 
ing after the fact is analogous, in the moral world, to this 
arrangement in the physical. If Intellect, Benevolence, 
Veneration, and Conscientiousness, do their parts, they will 
give intimations of disapprobation before the commission of* 
offences, just as Cautiousness will give intimations of dan- 
ger at the sight of the cliff; but if these are disregarded, and 
we fall over the moral precipice, remorse will follow as a 
punishment, just as pain is the chastisement for tumbling 
over the physical brink. The object of both institutions is 
to permit and encourage the most vigorous and unrestrained 
exercise of our faculties, in accordance with the physical, 
moral, and intellectual laws of nature, and to punish us only 
when we transgress these limits. 

Firmness is bestowed, — and the other faculties of the 
mind are its objects. It supports and maintains their acti- 
vity, and gives determination to our purposes. 

Imitation is bestowed, — and every where man is sur- 
rounded by beings and objects whose actions and appearances 
it may benefit him to copy. 

The next Class of Faculties is the Intellectual. 

The provisions in external nature for the gratification of 
the Senses of Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Taste, and Feel- 
ing, are so obvious, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon 
them. 

Individuality and Eventuality, or the powers of observ- 
ing things that exist, and occurrences are giYen, — and " all 



COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL 0BJECT8. 75 

the truths which Natural Philosophy teaches, depend upon 
matter of fact, and that is learned by observation and expe- 
riment, and never could be discovered by reasoning at all." 
Here, then, is ample scope for the exercise of these powers. 

Form, Size, Weight, Locality, Order, and Number, 
are bestowed, — and the sciences of Geometry, Arithmetic, 
Algebra, Geography, Navigation, Botany, Mineralogy, Zoo- 
logy, Anatomy, and various others, are the fields of their 
exercise. The first three sciences are almost the entire pro- 
ducts of these faculties ; the others result chiefly from them, 
when applied on external objects. 

Colouring, Time, and Tune are given, — and these, aided 
by Construetiveness, Form, Size, Ideality, and other facul- 
ties, find scope in Painting, Sculpture, Poetry, Music, and 
the other fine arts. 

Language is given, — and our faculties inspire us with 
lively emotions and ideas, which we desire to communicate 
by its means to other individuals. 

Comparison and Causality exist, and these faculties, 
aided by Individuality, Form, Size, Weight, and others 
already enumerated, find ample gratification in Natural Phi- 
losophy, and Moral, Political, and intellectual Science. The 
general objects and affairs of life, together with our own 
feelings, conduct, and relations, are also the objects of the 
knowing and reflecting faculties, and afford them vast op- 
portunities for exercise. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THB SOURCES OP HUMAN HAPPINESS, AND THE CONDI- 
TIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT. 

Having now given a rapid sketch of the constitution of 
man, and its relations to external objects, we are prepared 
to inquire into the sources of his happiness, and the condi- 
tions requisite for maintaining it. 

The first and most obvious circumstance which attracts 
attention is, that all enjoyment must necessarily arise frorA 
activity of the various systems of which the human consti- 



76 . ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

tution is composed. The bones, muscles, nerves, and di« 
gestive and respiratory organs, furnish pleasing sensations, 
directly or indirectly, when exercised in conformity with 
their nature ; and the external senses and internal faculties, 
when excited, supply the whole remaining perceptions and 
emotions, which, when combined, constitute life and rational 
existence. If these were habitually buried in sleep, or con- 
stitutionally inactive, life, to all purposes of enjoyment, might 
as well be extinct : Existence would be reduced to mere 
vegetation, without consciousness. 

If, then, wisdom and benevolence have been employed in 
constituting man, we may expect the arrangements of crea- 
tion, in regard to him, to be calculated, as a leading object, to 
excite his various powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. 
This, accordingly, appears to me to be the case ; and the 
fact may be illustrated by a few examples. A certain por- 
tion of nervous and muscular energy is infused by nature 
into the human body every twenty-four hours, which it is 
delightful to expend. To provide for its expenditure, the 
stomach has been constituted so as to require regular sup- 
plies of food, which can be obtained only by nervous and 
muscular exertion ; the body has been created destitute of 
covering, yet standing in need of protection from the ele- 
ments of heaven ; and nature has been so constituted, that 
raiment can be easily provided by moderate exercise of the 
mental and corporeal powers. It is delightful to repair ex- 
hausted nervous and muscular energy by wholesome ali- 
ment ; and the digestive organs have been so constituted as 
to afford us frequent opportunities of enjoying the pleasures 
of eating. In these arrangements, the design of supporting 
the various systems of the body in activity, for the enjoy- 
ment of the individual, is abundantly obvious. A late wri- 
ter justly remarks, that "a person of feeble texture and in- 
dolent habits has the bone smooth, thin, and light ; but na- 
ture, solicitous for our safety, and in a manner which we 
could not anticipate, combines with the powerful muscular 
frame a dense and perfect texture of bone, where every spine 
and tubercle is completely developed." "As the structure 
of the parts is orignally perfected by the action of the vessels, 
the function or operation of the part is made the stimulus to 
those vessels. The cuticle on the hand wears away like a 
glove ; but the pressure stimulates the living surface to force 



- A.KD THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 77 

•fuccessive layers of skin under that which is wearing, or, 
as anatomists call it, desquamating ; by which they mean, 
that the cuticle does not change at once, but comes off in 
squamse or scales." 

Directing our attention to the Mind, we discover that In- 
dividuality, and the other Perceptive Faculties, desire, as 
their means of enjoyment, to become acquainted with exter- 
nal objects ; while the Reflecting Faculties long to know 
the dependencies and relations of all objects and beings. 
*' There is something," says an eloquent writer, " positively 
agreeable to all men, to all at least whose nature is not most 
grovelling and base, in gaining knowledge for its own sake. 
When you see any thing for the first time, you at once de- 
rive some gratification from the sight being new ; your 
attention is awakened, and you desire to know more about 
it. If it is a piece of workmanship, as an instrument, a 
machine of any kind, you wish to know how it is made ; 
how it works ; and what use it is of. If it is an animal, you 
desire to know where it comes from ; how it lives ; what 
are its dispositions, and, generally, its nature and habits. 
This desire is felt, too, without at all considering that the 
machine or the animal may ever be of the least use to your- 
self practically ; for, in all probability, you may never see 
them again. But you feel a curiosity to learn all about 
them, because they are new and unknown to you. You ac- 
cordingly make inquiries ; you feel a gratification in getting 
answers to your questions, that is in receiving information, 
and in knowing more, — in being better informed than you 
were before. If you ever happen again to see the same in- 
strument or animal, you find it agreeable to recollect having 
seen it before, and to think that }'ou know something about 
it. If you see another instrument or animal, in some re- 
spects like, but differing in other particulars, you find it 
pleasing to compare them together, and to note in what they 
agree, and in what they differ. Now, ail this kind of grati- 
fication is of a pure and disinterested nature, and has no 
reference to any of the common purposes of life ; yet it is a 
pleasure — an enjoyment. You are nothing the richer for 
it ; you do not gratify your palate, or any other bodily appe- 
tite ; and yet it is so pleasing that you would give something 
out of your pocket to obtain it, and would forego some 
bodily enjoyment for its sake. The pleasure derived from 



78 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

science is exactly of the like nature, or, rather, it is the very 
same."* This is a correct and forcible exposition of the 
pleasures attending the active exercise of our intellectual 
faculties. In the Introduction to this work, pages 6 and 7, 
I have given several illustrations of the manner in which the 
external world is adapted to the mental faculties of man, 
and of the extent to which it is calculated to maintain them 
in activity, and I need not repeat them here. 

* Supposing the human faculties to have received their pre- 
sent constitution, two arrangements for their gratification 
may be fancied: 1st, Infusing into the intellectual powers 
at birth, intuitive knowledge of every object which they are 
fitted ever to comprehend ; and directing every propensity 
and sentiment by an infallible instinct to its best mode and 
degree of gratification : Or, 2d/y, Constituting the intellec- 
tual faculties only as rapacities for gaining knowledge by 
exercise and application, and surrounding them with objects 
bearing such relations towards them, that, when these ob- 
jects and relations are observed and attended to, high grati- 
fication shall be obtained, and, when they are unobserved 
and neglected, the result shall be uneasiness and pain ; giv- 
ing at the same time to each propensity and sentiment a 
wide field of action, comprehending both use and abuse, and 
leaving the intellect to direct each to its proper objects, and 
to regulate its degrees of indulgence. And the question 
occurs, Which of these modes would be more conducive to 
enjoyment ] The general opinion will be in favour of the 
first ; but the second appears to me to be preferable. If the 
first meal we had eaten had for ever prevented the re- 
currence of hunger, it is obvious that all the pleasures of 
satisfying a healthy appetite would then have been at an end ; 
so that this apparent bounty would have greatly abridged 
our enjoyment. In like manner, if (our faculties being con- 
stituted as at present) unerring desire had been impressed 
on the propensities and sentiments, and intuitive knowledge 
had been communicated to the understanding, so that, when 
an hour old, we should have been, morally, as wise and vir- 
tuous, and, intellectually, as thoroughly instructed as we 
jould ever become, all provision for the sustained activity of 
our faculties would have been done away with. When 

* Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 1, 



AND THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 79 

wealth is acquired, the miser's pleasure in it is diminished. 
He grasps after more with increasing avidity. He is sup- 
posed irrational in doing so ; but he obeys the instinct of 
his nature. What he possesses no longer satisfies Acquisi- 
tiveness. The miser's pleasure arises from the active stale 
of this faculty, and only the pursuit and obtaining of new 
treasures can maintain that state. The same law is exem- 
plified in the case of Love of Approbation. The enjoyment 
which it affords depends on its active state; and hence the 
necessity for new incense, and for mounting higher in the 
scale of ambition, is constantly felt by its victims. Napo- 
leon, in exile, said, " Let us live upon the past ;" but he 
found this impossible : his predominant desires originated 
in Love of Approbation and Self-Esteem, and the past did 
not stimulate them, or maintain them in constant activity. 
In like manner, no musician, artist, poet, or philosopher, 
would reckon himself happy, however extensive his attain- 
ments, if informed, " Now you must stop and live upon the 
past ;" and the reason is still the same ; the pursuit of new 
acquirements, and the discovery of new fields of investiga- 
tion, excite and maintain the faculties in activity ; and ac- 
tivity is enjoyment. 

If these views be correct, the consequences of imbuing the 
mind, as at present constituted, with intuitive knowledge, 
and instinctive direction as to conduct, would not have been 
unquestionably beneficial. The limits of our experience and 
acquirements would have been speedily reached ; our first 
step would have been our last ; every object would have be- 
come old and familiar ; Hope would have had no object of 
expectation, Cautiousness no object of fear, Wonder no 
gratification in novelty ; and monotony, insipidity, and men- 
tal satiety, would apparently have been the lot of man. 

According to the view now advanced, creation, in its pres- 
ent form, is more wisely and benevolently adapted to our 
constitution than if instinctive direction and intuitive instruc- 
tion had been given to the mind at birth. By the actual 
arrangement, numerous noble faculties are bestowed, and 
their objects are presented : these objects are endowed with 
qualities fitted to benefit and delight as, when properly used, 
and to injure and punish us when misunderstood or mis- 
applied ; but we are left to find out their qualities by the 
exercise of our own powers. Provision is thus made for 



80 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

ceaseless activity of the mental faculties, and this consti- 
tutes delight. Wheat is produced by the earth, and adapted 
to the nutrition of the body ; but it may be rendered more 
grateful to taste, more salubrious to the stomach, and more 
stimulating to the nervous and muscular systems, by being 
stripped of its external skin, ground into flour, and baked. 
Now, when the Creator endowed wheat with its properties, 
and the human body with its qualities and functions, he pre- 
arranged all these relations. In withholding congenital and 
intuitive knowledge of them, but in bestowing faculties 
fitted to find them out ; in rendering the exercise of these 
faculties agreeable ; and in leaving man, in this condition, to 
act for himself, — he appears to me to have conferred on him 
the highest boon. The earth produces also hemlock and 
foxglove ; and, by the organic law, those substances, if taken 
>n certain moderate qualities, remove diseases ; if in excess, 
they occasion death : but man's observing faculties, when 
acting under the guidance of Cautiousness and Reflection, 
are fitted to make this discovery ; and he is left to make it 
in this way, or suffer the consequences of neglect. 

Water, when elevated in temperature, becomes steam ; 
steam expands with prodigious power ; and this power, con- 
fined by metal and directed by intellect, is capable of being 
converted into the steam-engine, the most efficient yet most 
humble servant of man. All this was clearly pre-arranged 
by the Deity, and man's faculties were adapted to it at crea- 
tion ; but he was left to observe and discover the qualities 
and relations of water for himself. This duty, however, 
must be acknowledged to have been benevolently imposed, 
the moment we perceive that the Creator has made the very 
exercise of the faculties agreeable, and arranged the qualities 
and relations of matter so beneficially, that, when known, 
they carry a double reward to the discoverer, — the pleasure 
of mental exereise, and positive advantage derived from the 
objects themselves. 

The Knowing Faculties, as we have seen, observe merely 
the qualities of bodies, and their simpler relations. The 
Reflecting Faculties observe relations also, but of a higher 
order. The former, for example, discover that the soil is clay 
or gravel ; that it is tough or friable ; that it is dry or wet ; 
that excess of water impedes vegetation ; that in one season 
the crop is large, and in the next deficient. The reflecting 



AND THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 81 

faculties take cognizance ol the causes of these phenomena ; 
and acting along with the knowing powers, they discover the 
means by which wet soil may be rendered dry, clay pulver- 
ized, light soil invigorated, and all of them made more pro- 
ductive ; and also the relationship of particular soils to par- 
ticular kinds of grain. Nations that exert their knowing 
faculties in observing the qualities of the soil, and their reflec- 
ting faculties in discovering its capabilities, and its relations 
to water, lime, manures, and the various species of grain, 
— and who put forth their muscular and nervous energies in 
accordance with the dictates of these powers, — received a 
rich reward in a climate improved in salubrity, and an abun- 
dant supply of food, besides much positive enjoyment attend- 
ing the exercise of the powers themselves. — Those commu- 
nities, on the other hand, who neglect to use their mental 
faculties, and muscular and nervous energies, are punished 
by ague, fever, rheumatism, and a variety of painful affections 
arising from damp air ; they are stinted in food, and in wet 
seasons are brought to the very brink of starvation by serious 
failures of their crops. This punishment is a benevolent 
admonition from the Creator, that they are neglecting a 
great duty, and omitting to enjoy a great pleasure ; and it 
will cease as soon as, by obeying the Divine laws, they have 
fairly redeemed the blessings lost by their negligence. 

The winds and waves appear, at first sight, to present 
insurmountable obstacles to man's leaving the island or con- 
tinent on which he happens to be born, and to his holding 
intercourse with distant climes : But, by observing the re- 
lations of water to timber, he is enabled to construct a ship ; 
by observing the influence of the wind on a body placed in 
a fluid medium, he discovers the use of sails ; and, lately, 
he has found out the expansive quality of stream, and traced 
its relations until he has produced a machine that enables 
him almost to set the roaring tempest at defiance, and to 
sail straight to the stormy north, although its loudest and 
its fiercest blasts oppose. All these capabilities were con- 
ferred on nature and on man, long before they were prac- 
tically applied ; but now that we have advanced so far in 
our career of discovery and improvement, we perceive the 
scheme of creation to be admirably adapted to support the 
mental faculties in habitual activity, and to reward us for 
the exercise of them. 



82 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

In surveying external nature with this principle in view, 
we perceive in many qualities of physical objects clear indi- 
cations of benevolent design, which otherwise would be re- 
garded as defects. The Creator obviously intended that man 
should discover and use coal-gas in illuminating dwelling- 
houses ; and yet it emits an abominable odour. The bad 
smell, viewed abstractedly from its consequences, would ap- 
pear to be an unfortunate quality of gas ; but when we recol- 
lect that it is invisible, extremely subtle and liable to escape, 
and also, when mixed in a certein proportion with atmos- 
pheric air, to explode, — and that the nauseous and penetra- 
ting smell is like a voice attached to it, proclaiming its escape, 
and warning us, in louder and louder tones, to attend to our 
safety by confininig it, — it presents the aspect of wise and 
benevolent design. Gas stood in this relation to the olfac- 
tory nerves from the creation downwards, although it was 
long unknow to men. We cannnot doubt that the discovery 
and application of it by them was contemplated by the 
Creator from the first. A few years ago, on hearing Paganini 
play on the violin, the subject of wonder with me was the 
exquisite fineness of his notes. The sounds fell on the ear 
as if their cause had been purely etherial. No indication of 
their material origin could be traced. An angel might be 
imagined to send forth such strains to mortal ears. The ex- 
traordinary development of Paganini's organs of Tune and 
Time, with the extreme sensibility of his nervous system 
strongly indicated in his countenance and figure, seem to 
have been the causes of his attaining this high degree of 
power. In reflecting on his performance, the idea forcibly 
struck me, that until a being constituted like Paganini ap- 
peared, we had no means of discovering what exquisite 
sounds the material substances composing a violin and bow 
were capable of emitting, and that a similar reflection may 
probably be applicable to the entire sublunary creation. 
This world may be full of divine qualities and delicious har- 
monies, if we had only superior men to bring them into 
view ! And if the case be so, how truly admirable is that con- 
stitution of nature, which furnishes us with every possible 
inducement not only to study itself, but to improve our 
own qualities ; and which presents us with richer trea- 
sures, the farther we advance in the discharge of our most 
pleasing and profitable duties ! 



AND THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 83 

It is objected to this argument, that it involves an incon- 
sistency. Ignorance of the natural laws, it is said, is repre- 
sented as necessary to happiness, in order that the faculties 
may obtain exercise in discovering and obeying them; — 
nevertheless happiness is held to be impossible till these laws 
shall have been discovered and obeyed : here then, it is said, 
ignorance is represented as at once essential to, and incompat- 
ible with, enjoyment. But this is not an accurate represen- 
tation of the doctrine. I do not say that, in any individual 
man, ignorance of the natural laws is essential to enjoyment ; 
I merely maintain, that with his present constitution it was 
more beneficial for him to be left to learn these laws from his 
parents or his own experience, than at birth to have received 
intuitive knowledge of all the objects of creation. A similar 
objection might be stated to the constitution of the bee. 
Honey is necessary to its enjoyment ; yet it has been left to 
gather honey for itself. The fallacy lies in losing sight of 
the natural constitution both of the bee and of man. The 
bee has been furnished with instinctive tendencies to roam 
about the fields and flowery meadows, and to exert its ener- 
gies in labour ; and it is obviously beneficial to it to be pro- 
vided with opportunities of doing so. And so it is with man. 
Gathering knowledge is to the human mind what gathering 
honey is to the bee. Communicating intuitive knowledge 
of the natural laws to man, while his present constitution con- 
tinues, would be the exact parallel of naturally gorging the 
bee with honey during the whole summer, when its ener- 
gies are at their height. When the bee has completed its 
store, winter benumbs its powers, which resume their vigour 
only when its stock is exhausted, and when spring returns 
to afford them exercise. No torper resembling that of winter 
seals up the faculties of the human race ; but their ceaseless 
activity is amply provided for by other arrangements : First, 
Every individual of the race is born in utter ignorance, and 
starts from zero in the scale of knowledge, so that he has the 
laws to learn for himself either from his predecessors or from 
experience ; Secondly, The laws of nature, compared with the 
mental capacity of any individual, are of boundless extent, so 
that every one may learn something new to the end of the 
longest life ; Thirdly, By the actual constitution of man, he 
must make use of his acquirements habitually, otherwise ho 
will lose them. 



84 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

These circumstances remove the apparent inconsistency. 
If man had possessed intuitive knowledge of all nature, he 
could have had no scope for exercising his faculties in ac- 
quiring knowledge, in preserving it, or in communicating it. 
The infant would have been as wise as the most revered" 
6age, and forgetfulness would have been necessarily ex- 
cluded. 

Some who object to these views, imagine that after the 
human race has acquired knowledge of all the natural laws, 
if such a result be possible, they will be in the same condt 
tion as if they had been created with intuitive knowledge. 
But this does not follow. Although the race should acquire 
the knowledge supposed, it is not an inevitable consequence 
that each individual will necessarily enjoy it all ; which, how- 
ever would follow from intuition. The entire soil of Bri- 
tain belongs to the landed proprietors as a class ; but each 
does not possess it all, and hence every one has opportuni- 
ties of adding to his territories — with this disadvantage, 
however, in comparison with knowledge, that the acquisi- 
tions of one necessarily diminish the possessions of another. 
Farther, although the race should have learned all the na- 
tural laws, their children would not intuitively inherit their 
ideas, and thus the activity of every one, as he appeared on 
the stage, would be provided for ; whereas, by intuition, 
every child would be as wise as his grandfather, — and pa- 
rental protection, filial piety, and all the delights that spring 
from difference in knowledge between youth and age, would 
be excluded. Lastly, By the actual state of man, the using 
of acquirements is essential to the preservation as well as 
the enjoyment of them. By intuition, all knowledge would 
be habitually present to the mind without effort or considera- 
tion. On the whole, therefore it appears that (man's na- 
ture being what it is) the arrangement by which he is en- 
dowed with powers to acquire knowledge, but left to find it 
for himself, is both wise and benevolent. 

It has been asked, " But is there no pleasure in science 
except that of discovery ] Is there none in using the know- 
ledge we have attained 1 Is there no pleasure in playing at 
chess after we know the moves!" In answer, I observe, 
that if we knew beforehand all the moves that our antago- 
nist intended to make and all our own, w r hich must be the 
case if we knew every thing by intuition, we could have no 



AND THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 85 

pleasure. The pleasure really consists in discovering the 
intentions of our antagonist, and in calculating the effects 
of our own play ; a certain degree of ignorance of both of 
which is indispensable to gratification. In like manner, it 
is agreeable first to discover the natural laws, and then to 
study the moves that we ought to make, in consequence of 
knowing them. So much, then, for the sources of human 
happiness. 

In the second place, To reap enjoyment in the greatest 
quantity and to maintain it most permanently, the faculties 
must be gratified harmoniously : In other words, if, among 
the various powers, the supremacy belongs to the moral sen- 
timents, then the aim of our habitual conduct must be the 
attainment of objects suited to gratify them. For example, 
in pursuing wealth or fame as the leading object of exist- 
ence, full gratification is not afforded to Benevolence, Vene- 
ration, and Conscientiousness, and consequently completo 
satisfaction cannot be enjoyed : whereas, by seeking know- 
ledge, and dedicating life to the welfare of mankind, and 
obedience to God, in our several vocations, these faculties 
will be gratified, and wealth, fame, and health, and other 
advantages, will flow in their train, so that the whole mind 
will rejoice, and its delight will remain permanent. 

Thirdly^ To place human happiness on a secure basis, 
the laws of external creation must themselves accord with 
the dictates of the moral sentiments, and intellect must be 
fitted to discover the nature and relations of both, and to 
direct the conduct in harmony with them. 

Much has been written concerning the extent of human 
ignorance : but we should discriminate between absolute 
incapacity to know, and mere want of information, arising 
from not having used this capacity to its full extent. In re- 
gard to the first — our capacity to know — it appears probable 
that, in this world, we shall never know the essence, begin- 
ning, or end of things ; because these are points which we 
have no faculties calculated to discover: But the same Crea- 
tor who made the external world constituted our faculties ; 
and if we have sufficient data for inferring it to be His in- 
tention that we shall enjoy existence here while preparing 
for the ulterior ends of our being, — and if it be true that we 
can be happy here, only by becoming thoroughly conversant 
with those natural laws which are pre-arranged to contri 
8 



86 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

bute, when observed, to our enjoyment, and which, when 
violated, visit us with suffering, — then we may safely con- 
clude that our mental capacities are wisely adapted to the 
attainment of these objects, whenever we shall do our own 
duty in bringing them to their highest condition of perfec- 
tion, and in applying them in the best manner. 

Sir Isaac Newton observed that all bodies which refrac- 
ted the rays of light, were combustible, except one, the dia- 
mond, which he found to have this quality, but which he 
was not able, by any powers he possessed, to consume by 
burning. He did not conclude, however, from this, that the 
diamond was an exception to the uniformity of nature. He 
inferred that, as the same Creator had made the diamond 
and the refracting bodies which he was able to burn, and 
proceeded by uniform laws, the diamond also would, in ail 
probability, be found to be combustible, and that the reason 
of its resisting his power was ignorance on his part of the 
proper way to produce its conflagration. A century after- 
ward, chemists made the diamond blaze with as much viva- 
city as Sir Isaac Newton had done a wax-candle. Let us 
proceed, then, on an analogous principle. If the intention 
of our Creator be, that we should enjoy existence while in 
this world, then he knew what was necessary to enable us 
to do so ; and He will not be found to have failed in con- 
ferring on us powers fitted to accomplish His design, pro- 
vided we do our duty in developing and appling them. The 
great motive to exertion is the conviction, that increased 
knowledge will furnish us with increased means of happi- 
ness and well-doing, and with new proofs of benevolence 
and wisdom in the Great Architect of the Universe. 

In pleading thus earnestly for the wise and benevolent 
constitution of the human mind, and the admirable adapta- 
tion of external nature to its qualities, I may be causing 
uneasiness to some readers who have been educated in the 
belief that human nature is inherently corrupt, and that 
physical creation is essentially disordered ; but, in doing so, 
I yield to the imperative dictates of what appears to me to 
be truth. If the views now expounded shall be shown to 
be fallacious, I shall be most anxious to abandon them ; but 
if they shall prove to be correct interpretations of nature, 
they will of necessity stand forth in all the might and ma- 
jesty of divine appointments, and it will be criminal eithei 



AND THE CONDITIONS FOR MAINTAINING IT. 87 

to conceal or oppose them. If they be true, they will carry 
vast consequences in their real. I am not rearing a system 
from ambitious motives, neither is it my object to attack 
the opinions of other men. It is simply to lift up the veil 
of ignorance, and, in all humility, to exhibit the Creator's 
works in their true colours, so far as I imagine myself to 
have been permitted to perceive them. 



CHAPTER IV. 

APPLICATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE PRACTICAL 

ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 

If a system of living and occupation were to be framed 
for human beings, founded on the exposition of their nature 
which I have now given, it would be something like this. . 

First, So many hours a-day should be dedicated by every 
individual in health, to the exercise of his nervous and mus- 
cular systems, in labour calculated to give scope to their 
functions. The reward of obeying this requisite of his na- 
ture would be health, and a joyous animal existence ; the 
punishment of neglect is disease, low spirits, and premature 
death. 

Secondly, So many hours a-day should be spent in the 
sedulous employment of the knowing and reflecting facul- 
ties ; in studying the qualities of external objects, and their 
relations ; also the nature of animated beings, and their re- 
lations ; with the view not of accumulating mere abstract 
and barren knowledge, but of enjoying the positive pleasure 
of mental activity, and of turning every discovery to account, 
as a means of increasing happiness or alleviating misery. 
The leading object should always be, to find out the rela- 
tionship of every object to our own nature, organic, animal, 
moral, and intellectual, and to keep that relationship habi- 
tually in mind, so as to render our acquirements directly 
gratifying to our various faculties. The reward of this con- 
duct would be an incalculable increase of pleasure, in the 
very act of acquiring a knowledge of the real properties of 



88 APPLICATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS TO 

external objects, together with a great accession of power 
in reaping ulterior advantages and avoiding disagreeable 
affections. 

Thirdly, So many hours a-day ought to be devoted to the 
cultivation and gratification of our moral and religious sen- 
timents ; that is to say, in exercising these in harmony with 
intellect, and especially in acquiring the habit of admiring, 
loving, and yielding obedience to the Creator and his insti- 
tutions. This last object is of vast importance. Intellect 
is barren of practical fruit, however rich it may be in know- 
ledge, until it is fired and prompted to act by moral senti- 
ment. In my view, knowledge by itself is comparatively 
worthless and impotent, compared with what it becomes 
when vivified by lofty emotions. It is not enough that In- 
tellect is informed ; the moral faculties must co-operate, in 
yielding obedience to the precepts which the intellect recog- 
nises to be true. As creation is one great system, of which 
God is the author and preserver, we may fairly presume that 
there must be harmony among all its parts, and between it 
and its Creator. The human mind is a portion of creation 
and its constitution must be included in this harmonious, 
scheme. The grand object of the moral and intellectual 
faculties of man, therefore, ought to be, the study of God 
and of his works. Before philosophy can rise to its highest 
dignity, and shed on the human race its richest benefits, it 
must become religious ; that is to say, its principles and 
their consequences must be viewed as proceeding directly 
from the Divine Being, and as a revelation of his will to the 
faculties of man, for the guidance of his conduct. Philoso- 
phy, while separated from the moral feelings, is felt by the 
people at large to be cold and barren. It may be calculated 
to interest individuals possessing high intellectual endow- 
ments ; but as, in general, the moral and religious senti- 
ments greatly predominate in energy over the intellectual 
powers, it fails to interest the mass of mankind. On the 
other hand, before natural religion can appear in all its 
might and glory, it must become philosophical. Its foun- 
dations must be laid in the system of creation ; its authority 
must be deduced from the principles of that system ; and its 
applications must be enforced by a demonstration of the 
power of Providence operating in enforcing the execution 
of its dictates. While reason and religion are at variance, 



THE PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 89 

both are obstructed in producing their full beneficial effects. 
God has placed harmony between them, and it is only hu- 
man imperfection and ignorance that introduce discord. 
One way of cultivating the sentiments would be for men to 
meet and act together, on the fixed principles which I am 
now endeavouring to unfold, and to exercise, in mutual in- 
struction, and in united adoration of the great and glorious 
Creator, the several faculties of Benevolence, Veneration, 
Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and Conscientiousness. The re- 
ward of acting in this manner would be a communication 
of direct and intense pleasure to each other ; for I refer to 
every individual who has ever had the good fortune to pass 
a day or an hour with a really benevolent, pious, honest, and 
intellectual man, whose soul swelled with adoration of his 
Creator, whose intellect was replenished with knowledge of 
His works, and whose whole mind was instinct with sym- 
pathy for human happiness, — whether such a day did not 
afford him the most pure, elevated, and lasting gratification 
he ever enjoyed. Such an exercise, besides, would invigo- 
rate the whole moral and intellectual powers, and fit them 
to discover and obey the Divine institutions. 

Phrenology is highly conducive to this enjoyment of our 
moral and intellectual nature. No faculty is bad, but, on 
the contrary, each has a legitimate sphere of action, and, 
when properly gratified, is a fountain of pleasure ; in short, 
man possesses no feeling, of the right exercise of which an 
enlightened and ingenuous mind need be ashamed. A party 
of thoroughly practical phrenologists, therefore, meet in the 
perfect knowledge of each other's qualities ; they respect 
these as the gifts of the Creator; and their great object is 
to derive the utmost pleasure from their legitimate use, and 
to avoid every approximation to abuse of them. The dis- 
tinctions of country and education are broken down by unity 
of principle ; the chilling restraints of Cautiousness, Self- 
Esteem, Secretiveness, and Love of Approbation, which 
stand as barriers of eternal ice between human beings in the 
ordinary intercourse of society, are gently removed ; the di- 
recting sway is committed to Benevolence, Veneration, 
Conscientiousness, and Intellect ; and then the higher prin- 
ciples of the mind operate with a delightful vivacity unknown 
to persons unacquainted with the qualities of human nature. 
8* 



£0 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO 

Intellect also ought to be regularly exercised in arts, sci- 
ence, philosophy, and observation. 

I have said nothing of dedicating hours to the direct gra- 
tification of the animal powers ; not that they should not be 
exercised, but that full scope for their activity is included in 
the employments already mentioned. In muscular exer- 
cises, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Contructiveness, 
Acquisitiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, 
may all be gratified. In contending with and surmounting 
physical and moral difficulties, Combativeness and Destruc- 
tiveness obtain vent ; in working at a mechanical employ- 
ment, requiring the exertion of strength, these two faculties, 
and also Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness, will be ex- 
ercised ; in emulation who shall accomplish most good, 
Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation will obtain scope. In 
the exercise of the moral faculties, several of these and 
others of the animal propensities, are employed ; Amative- 
ness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Adhesiveness, for example, 
acting under the guidance of Benevolence, Veneration, Con- 
scientiousness, Ideality, and Intellect, receive direct enjoy- 
ment in the domestic circle. From proper direction also, 
and from the superior delicacy and refinement imparted to 
thern by the higher powers, they do not infringe the moral 
law, and leave no sting or repentance in the mind. 

Finally, a certain portion of time would require to be dedi- 
cated to the taking of food and sleep. 

All systems hitherto practised have been deficient in pro 
Tiding for one or more of these branches of enjoyment. In 
the community at Orbiston, formed on Mr. Owen's princi- 
ples, music, dancing, and theatrical entertainments were 
provided ; but the people soon tired of these. They had 
not corresponding moral and intellectual instruction. The 
novelty excited them, but there was nothing substantial be- 
hind. In common society, very little of either rational in- 
struction or amusement is provided. The neglect of inno- 
cent amusement is a great error. 

If there be truth in these views, they will throw some 
light on two important questions that have embarrassed phi- 
losophers, in regard to the progress of human improvement. 
The first is, Why should man have existed so long, and 
made so small an advance in the road to happiness 1 It is 



THE PRACTICAL ARR1NGEMENTS OF LIFE. 91 

obvious, that the very scheme of creation which I have de- 
scribed, implies that man is a progressive being ; and pro- 
gression necessarily supposes lower and higher conditions 
of attainment and enjoyment. While men are ignorant, 
there is great individual suffering. This distresses sensi- 
tive minds, and seems inexplicable : they cannot conceive 
how improvement should so slowly advance. I confess my- 
self incapable of affording any philosophical explanation 
why man should have been so constituted ; neither can I 
give a reason why the whole earth was not made temperate 
and productive, in place of being partially covered with re- 
gions of barren sand and eternal snow. The Creator alone 
can explain these difficulties. When the inhabitants of 
Britain wore the skins of animals, and lived in huts, we may 
presume that, in rigorous winters, many of them suffered 
severe privations, and that some would perish from cold. 
If there had been among the sufferers a gifted philosopher, 
who observed the talents that were inherent in the people, 
although then latent, and who, n consequence, foresaw the 
splendid palaces and warm fabrics with which their descen- 
dants Would one day adorn this island, he might well have 
been led to deplore the slow progress of improvement, and 
been grieved at the prevalence of so much intermediate mi- 
sery. Yet, the explanation that man is a progressive being, 
Ls all that philosophy can offer ; and if this satisfy us as to 
the past, it must be equally satisfactory in regard to the pre- 
sent and the future. The difficulty is eloquently adverted 
to by Dr. Chalmers in his Bridgewater Treatise. "We 
might not know the reason," says he, " why, in the moral 
world, so many ages of darkness and depravity should have 
been permitted to pass by, any more than we know the rea- 
son why, in the natural world, the trees of a forest, instead 
of starting all at once into the full efflorescence and stateli- 
ness of their manhood, have to make their slow and labo- 
rious advancement to maturity, cradled in storms, and alter- 
nately drooping or expanding with the vicissitudes of the 
seasons. But though unable to scan all the cycles either 
of the moral or natural economy, yet we may recognise such 
influences at work, as, when multiplied and developed to 
the uttermost, are abundantly capable of regenerating the 
world. One of the likeliest of these influences is the power 
of education, to the perfecting of which so many minds are 



02 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO 

earnestly directed at this moment, and for the general accep- 
tance of which in society we have a guarantee in the strong- 
est affections and fondest wishes of the fathers and mothers 
of families."— (Vol. i. p. 186.) 

Although, therefore, we cannot explain why man was con- 
stituted a progressive being, and why such a being advances 
slowly, the principles of this essay show that there is at least 
an admirable adaptation of his faculties to his condition. 
If I am right in the fundamental proposition, that harmo- 
nious activity of the faculties is synonymous with enjoyment 
of existence, — it follows that it would have been less wise 
and less benevolent toward man, constituted as he is, to have 
communicated to him intuitively perfect knowledge, thereby 
leaving his mental powers with diminished motives to ac- 
tivity, than to bestow on him faculties endowed with high 
susceptibility of action, and to surround him with scenes, 
objects, circumstances, and relations, calculated to maintain 
them in ceaseless excitement ; although this latter arrange- 
ment necessarily subjects him to suffering while ignorant, 
and renders his first ascent in the scale of improvement 
difficult and slow. It is interesting to observe, that, accord- 
ing to this Tiew, although the first pair of the human race 
had been created with powerful and well balanced faculties, 
but of the same nature as at present ; if they were not also 
intuitively inspired with knowledge of the whole creation, 
and its relations, their first movements as individuals would 
have been retrograde ; that is, as individuals, they would, 
through pure want of information, have infringed many na- 
tural laws, and suffered evil ; while, as parts of the race, 
they would have been decidedly advancing : for every pang 
they suffered would have led them to a new step in know- 
ledge, and prompted them to advance towards a much higher 
condition than that which they at first occupied. According 
to the hypothesis now presented, not only is man really 
benefitted by the arrangement which leaves him to discover 
the natural laws for himself, although, during the period of 
his ignorance, he suffers much evil from want of acquaint- 
ance with them ; but the progress which he has already 
made towards knowledge and happiness must, from the very 
extent of his experience, be actually greater than can at 
present be conceived. Its extent will become more obvious, 
and his experience itself more valuable, after he has obtain 



THE PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 93 

cd a view of the real theory of his constitution. He will 
find that past miseries have at least exhausted countless 
errors, and he will know how to avoid thousands of paths 
that lead to pain : in short, he will then discover that errors 
in conduct, like errors in philosophy, give additional import- 
ance and practicability to truth, by the demonstration which 
they afford of the evils attending departures from its dic- 
tates. The grand sources of human suffering at present 
are bodily disease and mental anxiety, and, in the next 
chapter, these will be traced to infringement, through igno- 
rance or otherwise, of physical, organic, moral, or intellect- 
ual laws, which, when expounded, appear in themselves 
calculated to promote the happiness of the race. It may 
be supposed that, according to this view, as knowledge ac- 
cumulates, enjoyment will decrease ; but, as formerly ob- 
served, ample provision is made against this event, by with- 
holding intuition from each generation as it appears on the 
stage. Each successive age must acquire knowledge for 
itself ; and, provided ideas are new and suited to the facul- 
ties, the pleasure of acquiring them from instructors is 
second only to that of discovering them ourselves. It is 
probable, moreover, that many ages will elapse before all the 
facts and relations of nature shall have been explored, and 
the possibility of discovery exhausted. If the universe be 
infinite, knowledge can never be complete. 

The second question is, Has man really advanced in hap- 
piness, in proportion to his increase in knowledge 1 We 
are apt to entertain erroneous notions of the pleasures en- 
joyed in past ages. Fabulists have represented them as 
peaceful, innocent, and gay ; but if we look narrowly into 
the conditions of the savage and barbarian of the present 
day, and recollect that these are the states of all individuals 
before the acquisition of scientific knowledge, we shall not 
much or long regret the pretended diminution of enjoyment 
by civilization.* Phrenology renders the superiority of the 
latter condition certain, by shewing it to be a law of nature, 
that, until the intellect is extensively informed, and the 
moral sentiments assiduously exercised, the animal pro- 
See on this subject a very elaborate and philosophical volume in 
the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled The New Zealand* 
cre t p. 360. 



94: APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO 

pensities bear the predominant sway ; and that wherever 
these are supreme, misery is an inevitable concomitant. 
Indeed, the answer to the objection that happiness has not 
increased with knowledge, appears to me to be found in the 
fact, that until Phrenology was discovered, the nature of 
man was not scientifically known, and that, in consequeuce, 
very few of his institutions, civil or domestic, were correctly 
founded on the principle of the supremacy of the moral 
sentiments, or in accordance with the other laws of his con- 
stitution. Owing to the same cause, also, much of his 
knowledge has necessarily remained partial, and inapplica- 
ble to use ; but after this science shall have been appre- 
ciated and applied, clouds of darkness, accumulated through 
long ages that are past, may be expected to roll away, as 
if touched by the rays of the meridian sun, — and with them, 
many of the miseries that attend total ignorance or imper- 
fect information to disappear. * 

It ought also to be kept constantly in remembrance, that 
man is a social being, and that the precept " love thy neigh- 
bour as thyself'* is imprinted in his constitution. That is- 
to say, so much of the happiness of each individual depends 
on the habits, practices, and opinions of the society in which 
he lives, that he cannot reap the full benefits of his own 
advancement, until similar principles have been embraced 
and realized in practice by his fellow men. This renders 
it his interest, as it is his duty, to communicate his know- 
ledge to them, and to carry them forward in the career of 
improvement. At this moment, there are thousands of 
persons who feel their enjoyments, physical, moral, and 
intellectual, impaired and abridged by the mass of ignorance 
and prejudice which every where surrounds them. They 
are men living before their age, and whom the world neither 

* Readers who are strangers to Phrenology and the evidence on 
which it rests, may regard the observations in the text as extrava- 
gant and enthusiastic ; but I respectfully remind them, that, while 
they judge in comparative ignorance, it has been my endeavour to 
subject it to the severest scrutiny. Having found its proofs irrefra- 
gable, and being convinced of its importance, I solicit their indul- 
gence in speaking of it as it appears to my own mind. As many 
persons continue ignorant of the progress which Phrenology has 
made, I have added, in the Appendix No. III., a note on this 
•abject. 



THE PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OP LIFE. 95 

understands nor appreciates. Let them not, however, 
repine or despair ; but let them dedicate their best efforts to 
communicating the truths which have opened up to them- 
selves the prospect of happiness, and they will not be dis- 
appointed. The law of our constitution which has esta- 
blished the supremacy of the moral sentiments, renders it 
impossible for individuals to attain the full enjoyment of 
tfieir rational nature, until they have rendered their fellow 
men virtuous and happy ; and in the truth and power of this 
principle, the ignorant and the wretched have a better 
guarantee for being raised in their condition by the efforts of 
their more fortunate brethren, than in the establishment of 
poor-laws or other legislative enactments. If all ranks of the 
people were taught the philosophy which I am now advocat- 
ing, and if, in so far as it is true, it were enforced by their 
religious instructors as the will of the Creator communicated 
to man through His natural institutions, the progress of 
general improvement would be greatly accelerated. 

If the notions now advocated shall ever prevail, it will be 
seen that the experience of past ages affords no sufficient 
reason for limiting our estimate of man's capabilities of ci- 
vilization. In the introductory chapter, I mentioned the 
slow and gradual preparation of the globe for man ; and that 
he appears to be destined to advance only by stages to the 
highest condition of his moral and intellectual nature. At 
present he is obviously only in the beginning of his career. 
Although a knowledge of external nature, and of himself, is 
indispensable to his advancement to his true station as a 
rational being, yet four hundred years have not elapsed since 
the arts of printing and engraving were invented, without 
which, knowledge could not be disseminated through the 
mass of mankind ; and, up to the present hour, the art of 
reading is by no means general over the world — so that, even 
now, the means of calling man's rational nature into activity, 
although discovered, are but very imperfectly applied. It is 
only five or six centuries since the mariner's compass was 
known in Europe, without which even philosophers could 
not ascertain the most common facts regarding the size, 
form, and productions of the earth. It is but three hundred 
and forty-three years since one-half of the habitable globe, 
America, became known to the other half; and considerable 
portions of it are still unknown even to the best informed 



96 APPLICATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS TO 

inquirers. It is little more than two hundred years since th« 
circulation of the blood was discovered ; previously to which 
it was impossible even for physicians to form any correct idea 
of the uses of many of man's corporeal organs, and of their 
relations to external nature. Haller, who flourished in the 
early part and middle of the last century, may be regarded as 
the founder of human physiology as a science of observation. 
It is only between forty and fifty years since the true func- 
tions of the brain and nervous system were discovered ; before 
which we possessed no adequate means of becoming ac- 
quainted with our mental constitution and its adaptation to 
external circumstances and beings. It is no more than 
sixty-one years since the study of Chemistry, or of the con- 
stituent elements of the globe, was put into a philosophical 
condition by Dr Priestley's discovery of oxygen ; and 
hydrogen was discovered so lately as 1766, or sixty-nine 
years ago. Before that time, people in general were com- 
paratively ignorant of the qualities and relations of the most 
important material agents with which they were surrounded. 
At present this knowledge is still in its infancy, as will ap- 
pear from an enumeration of the dates of several other 
important discoveries. Electricity was discovered in 1728, 
galvanism in 1794, gaslight about 1798 ; and steam-boats, 
steam-looms, and the safety-lamp, in our own day. 

It is only of late years that the study of Geology has been 
seriously begun ; without which we could not know the past 
changes in the physical structure of the globe, a matter of 
much importance as an element in judging of our present 
position in the world's progress. This science also is still 
in its infancy. An inconceivable extent of territory remains 
to be explored, from the examination of which, the most in- 
teresting and instructive conclusions will probably present 
themselves. In astronomy, too, the discoveries of the two 
Herschels promise to throw additional light on the early his- 
tory of the globe. 

The mechanical sciences are at this moment in full play, 
putting forth vigorous shoots, and giving the strongest in- 
dications of youth, and none of decay. 

The sciences of morals and of government are still in many 
respects in a crude condition. 

Inconsequence, therefore, of his profound ignorance, man, 
in all ages, has been directed in his pursuits by themeie im- 



THE PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIF0. 97 

pulse of his strongest propensities, formerly to war and con- 
quest, and now to accumulating wealth ; without having 
framed his habits and institutions in conformity with correct 
and enlightened views of his own nature, and its real interests 
and wants. Up to the present day, the mass of the people 
in every nation have remained essentially ignorant, the tools 
of interested leaders, or the creatures of their own blind im- 
pulses, unfavourably situated for the development of their 
rational nature ; and they, constituting the great majority, 
necessarily influence the condition of the rest. But at last, 
the arts and sciences seem to be tending towards abridging 
human labour, so as to force leisure on the mass of the people ; 
while the elements of useful knowledge are so rapidly in- 
creasing, the capacity of the operatives for instruction is so 
generally recognised, and the means of communicating it are 
so powerful and abundant, that a new era may fairly be 
considered as having commenced. 

From the want of a practical philosophy of human na- 
ture, multitudes of amiable and talented individuals are at 
present anxious only for preservation of the attainments 
which society possesses, and dread retrogression in the 
future. If the views now expounded be correct, this race 
of moralists and politicians will in time become extinct, be- 
cause progression being the law of our nature, the proper 
education of the people will render the desire for improve- 
ment universal. 



CHAPTER V. 

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE 
TO INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAWS OF NATURE ! 

In the present chapter, I propose to inquire into some of 
the evils that have afflicted the human race ; and whether 
they have proceeded from neglect of laws, benevolent and 
wise in themselves, and calculated, when observed, to pro- 
mote the happiness of man ; or from a constitution of nature 
so defective that he cannot supply its imperfections, or so 
vicious that he can neither rectify nor improve its qualities, 
9 



98 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

The following extract from the journal of John Locke, 
contains a forcible statement of the principle which I intend 
to illustrate : " Though justice be also a perfection which 
we must necessarily ascribe to the Supreme Being, yet we 
cannot suppose the exercise of it should extend farther than 
his goodness has need of it for the preservation of his crea- 
tures in the order and beauty of the state that he has placed 
each of them in ; for since our actions cannot reach unto 
him, or bring him any profit or damage, the punishments 
he inflicts on any of his creatures, i. e. the misery or des- 
truction he brings upon them, can be nothing else but to 
preserve the greater or more considerable part, and so being 
only for preservation, his justice is nothing but a branch of 
his goodness, which is fain by severity to restrain the 
irregular and destructive parts from doing harm." — Lord 
King's Life of Locke, p. 122. 

SECT. I. CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF 

THE PHYSICAL LAWS 

The proper way of viewing the Creator's institutions, is 
to look, first, to their uses, and to the advantages that flow 
from using them aright ; and, secondly, to their abuses, and 
the evils that proceed from this source. 

In Chapter II., some of the benefits conferred on man by 
the law of gravitation are enumerated ; and I may here 
advert to some of the evils originating from that law, when 
human conduct is in opposition to it. For example, men 
are liable to fall from horses, carriages, stairs, precipices, 
roofs, chimneys, ladders, and masts, and also to slip in the 
street— by which accidents life is often suddenly cut short, 
or rendered miserable from lameness and pain ; and the 
question arises, Is human nature provided with any means 
of protection against these evils, at all equal to their fre- 
quency and extent ] 

The lower animals are equally subject to this law ; and 
the Creator has bestowed on them external senses, nerves, 
muscles, bones, an instinctive sense of equilibrium, the 
sense of danger, or cautiousness, and other faculties, to 
place them in accordance with it. These appear to afford 
sufficient protection to animals placed in all ordinary cir- 
cumstances ; for we very rarely discover any of them, in 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS. 99 

their natural condition, killed or mutilated by accidents 
referrible to gravitation. Where their mode of life exposes 
them to extraordinary danger from this law, they are pro- 
vided with additional securities. The monkey, which climbs 
trees, enjoys great muscular energy in its legs, claws, and 
tail, far surpassing, in proportion to its gravitating tendency, 
or its bulk and weight, what is bestowed on the legs and 
arms of man ; so that, by means of them, it springs from 
branch to branch, in almost complete security against the 
law in question. The goat, which browses on the brinks 
of precipices, has received a hoof and legs that give pre- 
cision and stability to its steps. Birds, which are destined 
to sleep on branches of trees, are provided with a muscle 
passing over the joints of each leg and stretching down to 
the foot, and which, being pressed by their weight, produces 
a proportionate contraction of their claws, so as to make 
them cling the faster, the greater their liability to fall. The 
fly, which walks and sleeps on perpendicular walls and the 
ceilings of rooms, has a hollow in its foot, from which it 
expels the air, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the 
outside of the foot holds it fast to the object on which the 
inside is placed. The walrus, or sea-horse, which is des- 
tined to climb up the sides of ice-hills, is provided with a 
similar apparatus. The camel, whose native region is the 
sandy desert of the torrid zone, has broad spreading hooves 
to support it on the loose soil. Fishes are furnished with 
air-bladders, by dilating and contracting which they can 
accommodate themselves with perfect precision to the law 
of gravitation. 

In these instances, the lower animals, under the sole gui- 
dance of their instincts, appear to be placed admirably in 
harmony with gravitation, and guaranteed against its in- 
fringement. Is man, then, less an object of love with the 
Creator ? Is he alone left exposed to the evils that spring 
inevitably from its neglect 1 His means of protection are 
different, but when understood and applied, they will pro- 
bably be found not less complete. Man, as well as the lower 
animals, has received bones, muscles, nerves, an instinct of 
equilibrium,* and the faculty of Cautiousness ; but not in 
equal perfection, in proportion to his figure, size, and weight, 

* Vide Essay on Weight, Phren. Journ. vol. ii. p. 412, 



100 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

with those bestowed on them ; — The difference, however, 
is far more than compensated by other faculties, particularly 
those of Constructiveness and Reflection, in which he greatly 
surpasses them. Keeping in view that the external worJd, 
in regard to man, is arranged on the principle of the supre- 
macy of the moral sentiments and intellect, we shall probably 
find that the calamities suffered by him from the law of gra- 
vitation, are referrible to predominance of the animal propen- 
sities, or to neglect of proper exercise of his intellectual 
powers. For example when coaches break down, ships 
sink, or men fall from ladders, how generally may the cause 
be traced to decay in the vehicle, the vessel, or the ladder, 
which a predominating Acquisitiveness alone prevented from 
being repaired ; or when men fall from houses and scaffolds, 
or slip on the street, how frequently should we find their 
muscular, nervous, and mental energies impaired by pre- 
ceding debaucheries — in other words, by predominance of 
the animal faculties, which for the time diminished their nat- 
ural means of accommodating themselves to the law from 
which they suffer. The slater, in using a ladder, assists 
himself by the reflective powers ; but, in walking along the 
ridge of a house, or standing on a chimney, he takes no aid 
from these faculties ; he trusts to the mere instinctive power 
of equilibrium, in which he is inferior to the lower animals, 
— and, in so doing, clearly violates the law of his nature 
that requires him to use reflection where instinct is deficient. 
Causality and Constructiveness could invent and provide 
means, by which, if he slipped from a roof or chimney, his 
fall might be arrested. A small chain, for instance, attached 
by one end to a girdle round his body, and having the other 
end fastened by a hook and eye to the roof, might leave him 
at liberty to move, and might break his fall in case he slipped. 
How frequently, too, do these accidents happen after distur- 
bance of the mental faculties and corporeal functions by 
intoxication ! 

The objection will probably occur, that in the gross con- 
dition in which the mental powers exist, the great body of 
mankind are incapable of exerting habitually that degree of 
moral and intellectual energy, which is indispensable to ob- 
servance of the natural laws ; and that, therefore, they are, 
in point of fact, less fortunate than the lower animals. I 
admit that, at present, this representation is to a considerable 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS. 101 

extent just ; but nowhere do I perceive the human mind in- 
structed, and its powers exercised, in a degree at all ap- 
proaching to their limits. Let any person recollect how 
much greater capacity for enjoyment and security from dan- 
ger he has experienced, at a particular time, when his whole 
mind was filled with, and excited by, some mighty interest, 
not only allied to, but founded in, morality and intellect, than 
in that languid condition which accompanies the absence of 
elevated and ennobling emotions ; and he may form some idea 
of what man will become capable of, when his powers shall 
have been cultivated to the extent of their capacity. At the 
present moment, no class of society is systematically instruct- 
ed in the constitution of the mind and body, in the relations 
of these to external objects, in the nature of these objects, in 
the natural supremacy of the moral sentiments, in the prin- 
ciple that activity of the faculties is the true source of plea- 
sure, and that the higher the powers the more intense the 
delight ; and, if such views be to the mind what light is to 
the eyes, air to the lungs, and food to the stomach, there is 
no wonder that a mass of inert mentallity, if I may use such 
a word, should every where exist around us, and that num- 
berless evils should spring from its continuance in this con- 
dition. If active moral and intellectual faculties are the 
natural fountain of enjoyment, and the external world is 
created with reference to this state ; it is obvious that mis- 
ery must result from animal supremacy and intelletual tor- 
pidity, as that flame, which is constituted to burn only when 
supplied with oxygen, must inevitably become extinct when 
exposed to carbonic acid gas. Finally, if the arrangement 
by which man is left to discover and obey the laws of his 
own nature, and of the physical world, be more conducive to 
activity than intuitive knowledge, the calamities now con- 
templated appear to be instituted to force him to his duty ; 
and his duty, when understood, will constitute his delight. 

While, therefore, we lament the fate of individual victims 
to the law of gravitation, we cannot condemn that law itself. 
If it were suspended, to save men from the effects of negh« 
gence, not only would the proud creations of human skill 
totter to their base, and the human body rise from the earth 
and hang midway in the air ; but our highest enjoyments 
would be terminated, and our faculties become positively 
useless, by being deprived of their field of exertion. Cau»* 
9* 



102 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ality, for instance, teaches that the same cause will always, 
cceteris paribus, produce similar effects ; and, if the physical 
laws were suspended or varied, so as to accommodate them- 
selves to man's negligence or folly, it is obvious that this 
faculty would be without an object, and that no definite course 
of action could be entered upon with confidence in the result. 
If, then, this view of the constitution of nature were 
kept steadily in mind, the occurrence of one accident of 
this kind would stimulate reflection to discover means of 
avoiding others. 

Similar illustrations and commentaries might be given, m 
regard to the other physical laws to which man is subject ; 
but the object of the present essay being merely to evolve 
principles, I confine myself to gravitation, as the most ob- 
vious and best understood. 

I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise of intel- 
lect, man may absolutely guarantee himself against all ac- 
cidents ; but only that the more ignorant and careless he is, 
the more will he suffer, — and the more intelligent and vi- 
gilant, the less ; and that I can perceive no limits to this rule. 
The law of most civilized countries recognises this principle, 
and subjects owners of ships, coaches, and other vehicles, 
in reparation of damage arising from gross infringements of 
the physical laws. It is unquestionable that the enforce- 
ment of this liability has given increased security to travel- 
lers in no trifling degree. 

SECT. II. ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 

It is a very common error, to imagine that the feelings ot 
the mind are communicated to it through the medium of the 
intellect ; and, in particular, that if no indelicate objects 
reach the eyes, or expressions penetrate the ears, perfect 
purity will necessarily reign within the soul : and, carrying 
this mistake into practice, some are prone to object to ail 
discussion of the subjects treated of under the " Organic 
Laws," in works designed for general use. But their prin- 
ciple of reasoning is fallacious, and the result has been highly 
detrimental to society. The feelings have existence and ac- 
tivity distinct from the intellect ; they spur it on to obtain 
their own gratification ; and it may become either their guide 



INFRINGEMENT OP THE ORGANIC LAWS. 103 

or their slave, according as it is, or is not, enlightened con- 
cerning their constitution and objects, and the laws of nature 
to which they are subjected. The most profound philoso- 
phers have inculcated this doctrine, and by phrenological 
observation it is demonstratively established. The organs 
of the feelings are distinct from those of the intellectual fac- 
ulties ; they are larger ; and, as each faculty, cczteris paribus, 
acts with a vigour proportionate to the size of its organs, 
the feelings are obviously the more active or impelling 
powers. The cerebellum, or organ or Amativeness, is the 
largest of the whole mental organs ; and, being endowed with 
natural activity, it fills the mind spontaneously with emotions 
and suggestions, the outward manifestation of which may be 
directed, controlled and resisted, by intellect and moral sen- 
timent, but which cannot be prevented from arising, or erad- 
icated after they exist. The whole question, therefore, 
resolves itself into this, Whether is it more beneficial to 
enlighten the understanding, so as to dispose and enable it 
to control and direct that feeling, — or (under the influence of 
an error in philosophy, and false delicacy founded on it) to 
permit it to riot in all the fierceness of a blind animal instinct, 
withdrawn from the eye of reason, but not thereby deprived of 
its vehemence and importunity '! The former course appears 
to me to be the only one consistent with reason and morality ; 
and I shall adopt it in reliance on the good sense of my readers, 
that they will at once discriminate between practical instruc- 
tion concerning this feeling addressed to the intellect, and 
lascivious representations addressed to the mere propensity 
itself — with the latter of which the enemies of all improve- 
ment may attempt to confound my observations. Every 
function of the mind and body is instituted by the Creator : 
each has a legitimate sphere of activity : but all may be 
abused ; and it is impossible regularly to avoid abuse of them, 
except by being instructed in their nature, objects, and re- 
lations. This instruction ought to be addressed exclusively 
to the intellect ; and, when it is so, it is science of the most 
beneficial description. The propriety, nay necessity, of act- 
ing on this principle, becomes more and more apparent, 
when it is considered that such discussions suggest only in- 
tellectual ideas to individuals in whom the feeling in ques 
tion is naturally weak, and that such minds perceive no 
indelicacy in knowledge which is calculated to be useful ; 



104 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

while, on the other hand, persons in whom the feeling is 
naturally strong, are precisely those who stand in need of 
direction, and to whom, of all others, instruction is the most 
necessary. 

An organized being is one which derives its existence 
from a previously existing organized being — which subsists 
on food, grows, attains maturity, decays, and dies. What- 
ever the ultimate object of the Creator, in constituting or- 
ganized beings, may be, it will scarcely be denied, that part 
of His design is, that they should enjoy their existence here ; 
and, if so, the object of every part of their structure ought to 
be found conducing to this end. To render an organized 
being perfect in its kind, the first law that must be observed 
is, that the germ from which it springs shall be complete in 
all its parts, and sound in its whole constitution ; the second 
is, that the moment it is ushered into life, and as long as it 
continues to live, it shall be supplied with food, light, air, 
and every other aliment necessary for its support ; and the 
third law is, that it shall duly exercise its functions. When 
all these laws are obeyed, the being should enjoy pleasure 
from its organized frame, if its Creator is benevolent ; and 
its constitution should be so adapted to its circumstances, 
as to admit of obedicnee to them, if its Creator is wise and 
powerful. Is there, then, no such phenomenon on earth, 
as a human being existing in full possession of organic vi- 
gour, from birth till advanced age, when the organized system 
is fairly worn out 1 Numberless examples of this kind have 
occurred, and they show to demonstration, that the corpo- 
real frame of man is so constituted as to admit the possibi- 
lity of his enjoying health and vigour during the whole pe- 
riod of a long life. It is mentioned in the Life of Captain 
Cook, that " one circumstance peculiarly worthy of notice 
is the perfect and uninterrupted health of the inhabitants of 
New Zealand. In all the visits made to their towns, where 
old and young, men and women, crowded about our voy- 
agers, they never observed a single person who appeared to 
have any bodily complaint ; nor among the numbers that 
were seen naked, was once perceived the slightest eruption 
upon the skin, or the least mark which indicated that such 
an eruption had formerly existed. Another proof of the 
health of these people is the facility with which the wound* 
they at any time receive are healed. In the man who had 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 105 

been shot with the musket ball through the fleshy part of 
his arm, the wound seemed to be so well digested, and in so 
fair a way of being perfectly healed, that if Mr. Cook had not 
known that no application had been made to it, he declared 
that he should certainly have inquired, with a very interested 
curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the 
country. An additional evidence of human nature's being 
untainted with disease in New Zealand, is the great number 
of old men with whom it abounds. Many of them, by the 
loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, and 
yet none of them were decrepit. Although they were not 
equal to the young in muscular strength, they did not come 
in the least behind them with regard to cheerfulness and vi- 
vacity. Water, as far our navigators could discover, is the 
universal and only liquor of the New Zealanders. It is 
greatly to be wished that their happiness in this respect 
may never be destroyed by such a connexion with the Eu- 
ropean nations, as shall introduce that fondness for spiritu- 
ous liquors which hath been so fatal to the Indians of North 
America." — Kipgis^s Life of Captain Cook. Dublin, 1783, 
p. 100. 

In almost every country, individuals are to be found, who 
have escaped from sickness during the whole course of a 
protracted life. 

Now, as a natural law never admits of an exception, this 
excellent health could not occur in any individuals unless 
it were fairly within the capabilities of the race. 

The sufferings of women in childbed have been cited as 
evidence that the Creator has not intended the human be- 
ing, under any circumstances, to execute all its functions 
entirely free from pain. But, besides the obvious answer 
that the objection applies only to one sex, and is therefore 
not to be too readily presumed to have its origin in nature, 
there is good reason to deny the assertion, and to ascribe 
the suffering in question to departures from the natural 
laws, in either the structure or the habits of the individuals 
who experience it.* 

The advantage of studying the finest models of the hu- 
man figure, as exhibited in painting and sculpture, is to 
raise our ideas of the excellence of form and proportion to 

* See Appendix, No. IV. 



106 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

which our nature is capable of attaining ; for, other condi- 
tions being equal, the most perfect forms and proportions 
are always the best adapted for health and activity. 

Let us hold, then, that the organized system of man, in 
itself, admits of the possibility of health, vigour, and orga- 
nic enjoyment, during the full period of life ; and proceed 
to inquire into the causes why these advantages are not 
universal. 

One organic law, I have stated, is, that the germ of the 
infant being must be complete in all its parts, and perfectly 
sound in its condition, as an indispensable requisite to vi- 
gorous development and fall enjoyment of existence. If 
an agriculturist sow corn that is weak, and damaged, the 
plants that spring from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy 
decay. The same law holds in the animal kingdom ; and I 
would ask, has it hitherto been observed by man 1 Notori- 
ously it has not. Indeed, its existence has been either alto- 
gether unknown, or in a very high degree disregarded by 
human beings. The feeble, the sickly, the exhausted with 
age, and the incompletely developed through extreme youth, 
marry, and, without the least compunction regarding organ- 
ization which they shall transmit to their offspring, send into 
the world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose 
existence are tainted with disease. If we trace such conduct 
to its source, we shall find it to originate either in animal 
propensity, or in ignorance, or more frequently in both. 
The inspiring motives are generally mere sensual appetite', 
avarice, or ambition, operating in the absence of all just con- 
ceptions of the impending evils. The punishment of this 
offence is debility and pain transmitted to the children, and 
reflected back in anxiety and sorrow on the parents. Still 
the great point to be kept in view is, that these miseries are 
not legitimate consequences of observance of the organic 
laws, but the direct chastisement of their infringement. 
These laws are unbending, and admit of no exception ; they 
must be fulfilled, or the penalties of disobedience will follow. 
On this subject profound ignorance reigns in society. 
From such observations as I have been able to make, I am 
convinced that the union of certain temperaments and com- 
binations of mental organs in the parents, is highly condu- 
cive to health, talent, and morality in the offspring, and vice 
versa; and that these conditions may be discovered and 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 107 

taught with far greater certainty, facility, and advantage, 
than is generally imagined. It will be time enough to con- 
clude that men are naturally incapable of obedience to the 
organic laws, when, after their intellectual faculties and 
moral sentiments have been trained to observance of the 
Creator's institutions, as at once their duty, their interest, 
and a grand source of their enjoyment, they shall be found 
in continued rebellion 

A second organic law regards nutriment, which must be 
supplied of a suitable kind, and in due quantity. This law 
requires also free air, light, cleanliness, and attention to 
every physical arrangement by which the functions of the 
body may be strengthened or impaired. Have mankind, 
then, acted in accordance with, or neglected, this institution] 
I need scarcely answer the question. To be able to conform 
to institutions, we must first know them. Before we can 
know the organic constitution of our body, we must study 
it, and the study of the human constitution is anatomy and 
physiology. Before we can become acquainted with its re • 
lations to external objects, we must learn the existence and 
qualities of these objects (unfolded by chemistry, natural 
history, and natural philosophy), and compare them with 
the constitution of the human body. When we have ful- 
filled these conditions, we shall be better able to discover 
the laws which the Creator has instituted in regard to our 
organic system.* 

It will be said, however, that such studies are impracti- 
cable to the great bulk of mankind, and, besides, do not 
appear much to benefit those who pursue them. They are 
impracticable only while mankind prefer founding their 
public and private institutions on the basis of the propen- 
sities, instead of on that of the moral sentiments. I have 
mentioned, that exercise of the nervous and muscular systems 
is required of all the race by the Creator's fiat ; that if all 
who are capable would obey this law, a moderate amount 
of exertion agreeable and salubrious in itself, would suffice 
to supply our wants and to surround us with every benefi- 
cial luxury ; and that a large portion of unemployed time 

* In {< Physiology applied to Health and Education," by Dr. A. 
Combe, to which I refer, the organic laws are expounded in detail, 
and many striking examples are given of the infringement of these 
laws, and of its injurious consequences 



103 CALAMITIES ARl3tNG FK03J 

would remain. The Creator has bestowed on us Knowing 
Faculties, fitted to explore the facts of these sciences, Re-» 
fleeting Faculties to trace their relations, and Moral Senti- 
ments calculated to feel interest in such investigations, and 
to lead us to reverence and obey the laws which they un- 
fold ; and, finally, He has made this occupation, when en- 
tered upon with the view of tracing His power and wisdom 
in the subjects of our studies, and of discovering and obey- 
ing His institutions, the most delightful and invigorating of 
all vocations. Instead, then, of such a course of education 
being impracticable, every arrangement of the Creator 
appears to be prepared in direct anticipation of its actual 
accomplishment. 

The second objection, that those who study these sciences 
are not more healthy and happy, as organized beings, than 
those who neglect them, admits of an easy answer. They 
may have inherited feeble frames from their parents. Be- 
sides, only parts of these sciences have been taught to a 
few individuals, whose main design in studying them has 
been to apply them as means of acquiring wealth and fame ; 
but they have nowhere been taught as connected parts of 
a great system of natural arrangements, fraught with the 
highest influences on human enjoyment ; and in almost no 
instance have the intellect and moral sentiments been sys- 
tematically directed to the natural laws, as the great foun- 
tains of happiness and misery to the race, and trained to 
observe and obey them as the institutions of the Creator. 
In cases were physiology, natural history, and natural phi- 
losophy have been properly studied, the objection alluded 
to is at variance with experience and fact. 

A third organic law is, that all our functions shall be 
duly exercised ; and is this law observed by mankind 1 
Many persons are able, from experience, to attest the se- 
verity of the punishment that follows neglect to exercise 
the muscular system, in the lassitude, indigestion, irritability, 
debility, and general uneasiness that attend a sedentary 
and inactive life : But the penalties that attach to neglect 
of exercising the brain are much less known, and therefore 
I shall notice them more at length. The following is the 
description of the brain given by Dr. A. Combe, in his work 
on Physiology applied to Health and Education, already al* 
luded "to. 



INFRINGExMEXT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 



109 



u The brain is that large organized mass which, along 
with its enveloping membranes, completely fills the cavity 
of the skull. It is the seat of thought, of feeling, and of 
consciousness; and the centre towards which all impressions 
made on the nerves distributed through the body are con- 
veyed, and from which the commands of the will are trans- 
mitted to put the various parts in motion. 

" The structure of the brain is so complicated, that less 
is known of its true nature than of that of almost any other 
organ. It would therefore be entirely out of place to at- 
tempt to describe it here, farther than by stating generally 
its principal divisions. On sawing off the top of the skull, 
and removing the firm tough membrane called the dura mater 
(hard mother), which adheres closely to its concave surface, 
the cerebrum or brain proper presents itself, marked on the 
surface with a great variety of undulating windings or con- 
volutions, and extending from the fore to the back part of 
the head, somewhat in the form of an ellipse. The an- 
lexed cut, Fig. 1. represents the convolutions as seen on 

Fig. 1. — Upper Surface of the Brain. 




110 



CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 



the upper surface of the brain. In the middle line, from 
A to B, a deep cleft or fissure is perceived, separating tins 
brain, in its whole length, into two halves, or hemispheres, 
as they are called. Into this cleft dips a tight stiff mem- 
brane, resembling a scythe in shape, and hence called the 
falx (scythe), or sometimes, from its being a mere fold of 
the dura mater, the falciform {scythe-like) process of the 
dura mater. From its dipping down between the two 
halves of the brain, the chief purpose of this membrane 
seems to be to relieve the one side from the pressure of the 
other, when we are asleep, for example, or have the head 
reclining to either side. The membrane does not descend 
to the bottom of the brain, except in a small part, at the 
front and back, G G in Fig. 2. It descends about two- 
thirds of the depth of the whole brain. At the point where 
it terminates, a mass of fibres, named the corpus callosum, 
passes between and connects the two hemispheres. The 
convolutions represented in Fig. 1. belong chiefly to the 
coronal region, and manifest the moral sentiments. ,, 

The cut Fig. 2. represents the convolutions lying at the 
base of the brain. 

Fig. 2. — Under Surface of the Brain. 




INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. Ill 

a Each half or hemisphere of the brain is, in its turn, 
divided, — but in a less marked way, as the divisions are 
observable only on its inferior surface, — into three portions, 
called, from their situations, the anterior, middle, and posterior 
lobes, each occupying nearly a third of the whole length of 
the brain. The anterior lobe, being the portion lying before 
the dotted line E E, occupies the forehead ; the middle is all 
the portion lying between the two tranverse lines E E, and 
F F, above and a little in front of the ears ; and the posterior 
lobe is that portion lying behind the transverse line F F, 
and corresponding to the back part of the head. 

" Beneath the posterior lobe, a strong fold of the dura 
mater, called the tentorium, is extended horizontally to 
support and separate it from the cerebellum A A, or little 
brain, lying below it The cerebellum forms the last great 
division of the contents of the skull. Its surface is marked 
by convolutions, differing, however, in size and appearance 
from those observed in the brain. 

" Adhering to the surface of the convolutions, and con- 
sequently dipping down into, and lining the sulci or fur- 
rows between them, another membrane, of a finer texture, 
and greater vascularity, called pia mater, is found. The 
bloodvessels goiaag to the brain branch out so extensively 
on the pia mater, that, when z. little inflamed, it seems to 
constitute a perfect vascular net-work. This minute sub- 
division is of use in preventing the blood from being im- 
pelled with too great force against the dfelieate tissue of the 
brain. 

" A third covering, called the arachnoid membrane, from 
its fineness resembling that of a spider's web, is interposed 
between the other two, and is frequently the seat of disease. 

" On examining the convolutions in different brains, 
they are found to vary a good deal in size, depth, and gene- 
ral appearance. In the various regions of the same brain 
they are also different, but preserve the same general 
aspect. Thus they are always small and numerous in the 
anterior lobe, larger and deeper in the middle, and still 
larger in the posterior lobe. The thick cord or root C, 
springing from the base of the brain, is named the medulla 
oblongata, or oblong portion of the spinal marrow, which 
is continued downwards, and fills the cavity of the spine or 
back-bone. At one time the brain has been regarded a* 



112 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

proceeding from, and at another as giving rise to, the spinal 
marrow ; but, in reality, the two are merely connected, and 
neither grows from the other. The false analogy of a stem 
growing from a root has led to this abuse of language. 

" The small round filaments or cords seen to proceed 
from the sides of the medulla oblongata, and from near the 
base of the brain, are various nerves of sensation and mo- 
tion, some of them going to the organs of sense, and others 
to the skin and muscles of the face, head, and other more 
distant parts. The long flat-looking nerve a a, lying on 
the surface of the anterior lobe, is the olfactory, or nerve 
of smell, going to the nose. The round thick nerve 4 4, 
near the roots of the former, is the optic, or nerve of vision, 
going to the eye. That marked b is the motor nerve which 
supplies the muscles of the eyeball. A little farther back, 
the fifth pair c, is seen to issue apparently from the arch 
D, called Pons Varolii, or bridge of Varolius. It is a large 
compound nerve, and divides into three branches, which are 
ramified on almost all the parts connected with the head and 
face, and the upper and under jaw. It is a nerve of both sen- 
sation and motion, and one branch of it ramified on the 
tongue is the nerve of taste. Other branches supply and 
give sensibility to the teeth, glands, and skin. The seventh 
or auditory nerve e, is distributed on the internal ear, and 
serves for hearing. The eighth, or pneumogastric nerve d, 
sends filaments to the windpipe, lungs, heart, and stomach, 
and is one of great importance in the production of the voice 
and respiration. It also influences the actiop of the heart, 
and the process of digestion. 

" Such are the principal nerves more immediately con- 
nected with the brain, but which it is impossible to describe 
more minutely here. Those which supply the trunk of the 
body and the extremities, issue chiefly from the spinal mar- 
row ; but they also must, for the present, be passed over in 
silence, that we may return to the consideration of the 
brain. 

" The brain receives an unusually large supply of blood, 
in comparison with the rest of the body ; but the nature of 
its circulation, although a very interesting subject of study 
being only indirectly connected with cur present purpose, 
cannot now be discussed." 

The brain is the fountain of nervour energy to th<B whol# 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 113 

feody, and many individuals are habitual invalids, without 
actually labouring under any ordinary recognised disease, 
solely from defective -or irregular exercise of the nervous 
system. I«n such cases, not only the mind, in its feelings 
and intellectual capacities, suffers debility, but all the func- 
tions of the body participate in its languor, because all of 
them receive a diminished and vitiated supply of the nervous 
stimulus," a due share of which is essential to their healthy 
, action. The best mode of increasing the strength and en- 
ergy of any organ and function, is to exercise them regularly 
and judiciously, according to the laws of their constitution.* 
The brain is the organ of the mind ; different parts of it 
manifest distinct faculties ; and the power of manifestation 
in regard to each is proportionate, ceteris paribus, to the size 
and activity of the organ. The brain partakes of the general 
qualities of the organized system, and is strengthened by the 
same means as the other organs. When the muscles are 
called into vivacious activity, an increased influx of blood 
and nervous stimulus takes place in them, and their vessels 
and fibres become at once larger, firmer, and more suscepti- 
ble of action. Thought and feeling are to the brain what 
bodily exereise is to the muscles ; they put it into activity, 
and cause increased action in its bloodvessels, and an aug- 
mented elaboration of nervous energy. In a case reported 
by Dr. Pierquin, observed by hdm in one of the hospitals of 
Montpelier in 1821, he saw, in a female patient part of whose 
skull had been removed, the brain motionless and lying with- 
in the cranium when she was in a dreamless sleep ; in mo- 
tion and protruding without the skull when she was agitated 
by dreams ; more protruded in dreams reported by herself to 
be vivid ; and still more so when perfectly awake, and es- 
pecially if engaged in active thought or sprightly conversa- 
tion. Similar cases are reported by Sir Astley Cooper and 
Professor Blumenbach.f 

Those parts of the brain which manifest the feelings, con- 
stitute by far the largest portion of it, and they are best ex- 
ercised by discharging the active duties of life and of reli- 
gion ; the parts which manifest the intellect are smaller, and 

* S - Dr. A. Combe's Physiology, <£c, 3d edit., pp. 147, 192, 277. 
f See American Annals of Phrenology, No. 1. p. &7. Sir A. Cooper's 
Lectures on Surgery, by Tyrrel, vol. i p. 279. Eliiotson J a Blumoo- 
bash, 4th edition, p" 283. Phren. Journ. vol. ix. p. 223. 
10* 



114 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

are exercised by the application of the understanding in 
practical business, and in the arts, sciences, or literature. 

The first step, therefore, towards establishing the regular 
exercise of the brain, is to educate and train the mental fac- 
ulties in youth ; and the second is to place the individual 
habitually in circumstances demanding the discharge of use- 
ful and important duties. 

I have often heard the question asked, What is the use of 
education 1 The answer might be illustrated by explaining 
to the inquirer the nature and objects of the various organs 
of the body, such as the limbs, lungs, and eyes, and then 
asking him, if he could perceive any advantage to a being so 
constituted, in obtaining access to earth, air, and light I He 
would at once declare, that they were obviously of the very 
highest utility to him, as affording the only conceivable 
means by which these organs could obtain scope for action, 
which action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. To 
those, then, who know the constitution of the brain as the 
organ of the moral and intellectual powers of man, I need 
only say, that the objects presented by education to the mind, 
bear to it the same relation that the physical elements of 
nature do to the nerves and muscles ; they afford the facul- 
ties scope for action, and yield them delight. The meaning 
commonly attached to the word education in such cases, is 
Greek and Latin ; but I employ it to signify knowledge of na- 
ture and science in all its departments. Again, the significa- 
tion generally attached to the word use in such questions, is, 
how much money, influence, or consideration, will education 
bring 1 — these being the only objects of strong desire with 
which uncultivated minds are acquainted ; and it is not per- 
ceived in what way education can greatly gratify such pro- 
pensities. But the moment the mind is opened to the per- 
ception of its own constitution and to the natural laws, the 
great advantage of moral and intellectual cultivation, as a 
means of exercising and invigorating the brain and mentaj 
faculties, and also of directing the conduct in obedience to 
these laws, becomes apparent. 

But there is an additional benefit arising from healthy 
activity of brain, which is little known. Different modifi- 
cations of the nervous energy elaborated by the brain, ap- 
pear to take place, according to the mode in which the fa- 
culties and organs are affected. For example, when 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 115 

misfortune and disgrace impend over us, the organs of 
Cautiousness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation are 
painfully excited, and appear to transmit an impaired, or 
positively noxious, nervous influence to the heart, stomach, 
intestines, and thence to the rest of the body ; digestion is 
deranged, the pulse becomes feeble and irregular, and the 
whole corporeal system wastes. When, on the other hand 
the cerebral organs are agreeably affected, a benign and 
vivifying nervous influence pervades the frame, and all the 
functions of the body are performed with increased pleasure 
and success. Now, it is a law, that the quantum of nervous 
energy increases with the number of cerebral organs roused 
to activity, and with the degree of that activity itself. In 
the retreat of the French from Moscow, for example, when 
no enemy was near, the soldiers became depressed in courage 
and enfeebled in body, and nearly sank to the earth through 
exhaustion and cold ; but no sooner did the fire of the Rus- 
sian guns sound in their ears, or the gleam of their bayonets 
flash in their eyes, than new life seemed to pervade them. 
They wielded powerfully the arms, which, a few moments 
before, they could scarcely carry or drag on the ground. 
Scarcely, however, was the enemy repulsed, when their 
feebleness returned. The theory of this is, that the ap- 
proach of the combat called into activity a variety of addi- 
tional faculties ; these sent new energy through every nerve ; 
and, while their vivacity was maintained by the external 
stimulus, they rendered the soldiers strong beyond their 
merely physical condition. Many persons have probably 
experienced the operation of the same principle. If, when 
sitting feeble and listless by the fire, we have heard of an 
accident having occurred to some beloved friend who re- 
quired our instantaneous aid, or if an unexpected visiter has 
arrived, in whom our affections were bound up, — in an in- 
stant our lassitude was gone, and we moved with an alertness 
and animation that seemed surprising to ourselves. The 
cause was the same ; these events roused Adhesiveness, 
Benevolence, Love of Approbation, Intellect, and a variety 
of faculties which were previously dormant, and their in- 
fluence invigorated the limbs. Dr. Sparrman, in his Voyage 
to the Cape, mentions a striking illustration of the principle. 
*' There was now again," says he, " a great scarcity of meat 
in the wagon ; for which reason my Hottentots began to 



1.16 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

gTumblc, and reminded me that we ought not to w aste so 
much of our time in looking after insects and plants, but give 
a better look out after the game. At the same time, they 
pointed to a neighbouring dale overrun with wood, at the 
upper edge of which, at the distance of about a mile and a 
quarter from the spot where we then were, they had seen 
several buffaloes. Accordingly, we went thither ; but, 
though our fatigue was lessened by our Hottentots carry- 
ing our guns for us up a hill, yet we were quite out of breath 
and overcome by the sun, before we got up to it. Yet, what 
even now appears to me a matter of wonder is, that cm soon 
as we got a glimpse of the game, all this languor left us in an 
instant. In fact, we each of us strove to fire before the other, 
60 that we seemed entirely to have lost sight of all prudence 
ind caution. " 

It is part of the same law, that the more agreeable the 
mental stimulus, the more benign is the nervous influence 
transmitted to the body. 

An individual who has received from nature a large and 
tolerably active brain, but who, from possessing wealth 
sufficient to remove the necessity for labour, is engaged in 
no profession, and who has not enjoyed the advantages of a 
scientific or extensive education, and takes no interest in 
moral and intellectual pursuits for their own sake, is in ge- 
neral a victim to infringement of the natural laws. Persons 
of this description, ignorant of these laws, will, in all proba- 
bility, neglect nervous and muscular exercise, and suffer the 
miseries arising from impeded circulation and impaired di- 
gestion. In entire want of every object on which the energy 
of their minds might be expended, the due stimulating in- 
fluence of their brains on their bodies will be withheld, and 
the effects of muscular inactivity will be thereby aggravated : 
ail the functions will, in consequence, become enfeebled ; 
lassitude, uneasiness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, will 
arise ; and life, in short, will become a mere endurance of 
punishment for infringement of institutions calculated in 
themselves to promote happiness and afford delight when 
known and obeyed. This fate frequently overtakes un- 
educated females, whose early days have been occupied with 
business or the cares of a family, but whose occupations 
have ceased before old age has diminished corporeal vigour : 
It overtakes men also, who uneducated, retire from active 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 11/ 

business in the prime of life. In some instances, these 
evils accumulate to such a degree that the brain at length 
gives way, and insanity is the consequence. 

It is worthy of remark, that the more elevated the objects 
of our study, the higher in the scale are the mental organs 
which are exercised ; and that the higher the organs, the 
more pure and intense is the pleasure : hence, a vivacious 
and regularly supported excitement of the moral sentiments 
and intellect, is, by the organic law, highly favourable to 
health and corporeal vigour. In the fact of a living animal 
being able to retain life in an oven that will bake dead flesh, 
we see an illustration of the organic law rising above the 
purely physical ; and, in the circumstance of the moral and 
intellectual organs transmitting the most favourable nervous 
influence to the whole bodily system, we have an example 
of the moral and intellectual law rising higher than the 
merely organic. 

No person, after having his intellect imbued with a per- 
ception of, and belief in, the natural laws, as now explained, 
can possibly desire continued idleness as a source of plea- 
sure ; nor can he possibly regard muscular exertion and 
mental activity, when not carried to excess, as any thing 
else than enjoyments, kindly vouchsafed to him by the bene- 
volence of the Creator. The notion that moderate labour 
and mental exertion are evils, can originate only from igno- 
rance, or from viewing the effects of over-exhaustion as the 
result of the natural law, and not as the punishment for in- 
fringing it. 

If, then, we sedulously inquire, in each particular instance, 
into the cause of the sickness, pain, and premature death, 
or the derangement of the corporeal frame in youth and 
middle life, which we see so common around us : and en- 
deavour to discover whether it originated in obedience to 
the physical and organic laws, or sprang from infringement 
of them, we shall be able to form some estimate as to how 
far bodily suffering is justly attributable to imperfections 
of nature, and how far to our own ignorance and neglect of 
divine institutions. 

The foregoing principles, being of much practical impor- 
tance, may, with propriety, be elucidated by a few actual 
cases. Two or three centuries ago, various cities in .Europe 
were depopulated by the plague, and, in particular, London 



118 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

was visited by an awful mortality from this cause, in the 
reign of Charles the Second. Most people of that .age at- 
tributed the scourge to the inscrutable decrees of Providence, 
and some to the magnitude of the nation's moral iniquities. 
According to the views now presented, it must have arisen 
from infringement of the organic laws, and have been in- 
tended to enforce stricter obedience to them in future. There 
was nothing inscrutable in its causes or objects. These, 
when clearly analyzed, appear to have had no direct refer- 
ence to the moral condition of the people ; I say, direct refer- 
ence to the moral condition of the people — because it would 
be easy to show that the physical, the organic, and all the 
other natural laws, are connected indirectly, and constituted 
in harmony, with the moral law ; and that infringement of 
the latter often leads to disobedience of other laws, and 
brings a double punishment on the offender. The facts re- 
corded in history exactly correspond with the theory now 
propounded. The following is a picture of the condition of 
the cities of Western Europe in the 15th century : — " The 
floors of the houses being commonly of clay, and strewed 
with rushes or straw, it is loathsome to think of the filth col- 
lected in the hovels of the common people, and sometimes 
in the lodgings even of the superior ranks, from spilled milk, 
beer, grease, fragments of bread, flesh, bones, spittle, excre- 
ments of, cats, dogs, &c. To this Erasmus, in a letter 432, 
c. 1815, ascribes the plague, the sweating sickness, &c, in 
London, which, in this respect, resembled Paris and other 
towns of any magnitude in those times." — Ranker? s History 
of France, vol. v. p. 416. The streets of London were ex- 
cessively narrow, the habits of the people dirty, their food 
inferior, and no adequate provision was made for introducing 
a plentiful supply of water, or removing the filth unavoid- 
ably produced by a dense population. The great fire in that 
city, which happened soon after the pestilence, afforded an 
opportunity of remedying, in some decree, the narrowness 
of the streets ; and habits of increasing cleanliness abated 
the filth : these changes brought the people to a closer obe- 
dience to the organic laws, and no plague has since return- 
ed. Again, till very lately, thousands of children died year- 
ly, of the small-pox ; but, in our day, vaccine inoculation 
saves ninety-nine out of a hundred, who under the old sys- 
tem, would have died. The theory of its operation has re- 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 119 

cently been elucidated by Dr. Sonderland of Bremen, who 
has ascertained that cow-pox is merely a modification of 
small-pox ; so that in preventing small-pox, it acts in accor- 
dance with the well known law that certain diseases occur 
only once. 

A gentleman, who died about twenty years ago at an ad- 
vanced period of life, told me, that, six miles west from 
Edinburgh, the country was so unhealthy in his youth, that 
every spring the farmers and their servants were seized with 
fever and ague, and needed regularly to undergo bleeding, 
and a course of medicine, to prevent attacks or remove their 
effects. At that time, these visitations were believed to be 
sent by Providence, and to be inherent in the constitution 
of things. After, however, said my informant, an improv- 
ed system of agriculture and draining was established, and 
the vast pools of stagnant water, formerly left between the 
ridges of the fields, were removed, dunghills carried to a dis- 
tance from the doors, and the houses themselves made more 
spacious and* commodious, every symptom of ague and marsh- 
fever disappeared from the district, and it became highly sa- 
lubrious. In other words, as soon as the gross infringement 
of the organic laws was abated by a more active exertion of 
the muscular and intellectual powers of man, the punish- 
ment ceased. Another friend informed me, that, about fifty 
years ago, he commenced farming in a high and uncultiva- 
ted district of East-Lothian ; that the crops at first suffered 
severely from cold fogs ; that the whole region, however, 
has been since reclaimed and drained ; that the climate has 
greatly improved, and, in particular, that the destructive 
mists have disappeared. The same results have followed 
in Canada and the United States of America, from similar 
operations. 

In like manner, many calamities occurred in coal-pits, in 
consequence of infringement of a physical law by introdu- 
cing lighted candles and lamps into places filled with hydro- 
gen gas, which had emanated from seams of coal, and which 
exploded, and scorched and suffocated the men and animals 
within its reach ; until Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that 
the Creator had established such a relation between flame, 
wire-gauze, and hydrogen gas, that, by surrounding the 
flame with gauze, its power of exploding hydrogen was sus- 
pended By the simple application of a covering of wire- 



120 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

gauze over and around the flame, it is prevented from igni- 
ting gas beyond it ; and colliers are now able to carry with 
safety, lighted lamps into places highly impregnated with in- 
flammable air. I have been informed, that the accidents from 
explosion, which still occasionally occur in coal-mines, arise 
from neglecting to keep the lamps in perfect condition. 

It is needless to multiply examples in support of the pro- 
position, that the organized system of man, in itself, admits 
of a healthy existence from infancy to old age, provided its 
germ has been healthy, and its subsequent condition uni- 
formly in harmony with the physical and organic laws. 
But it has been objected, that, although the human faculties 
may perhaps be adequate to discover these laws, and to 
record them in books, they are totally incapable of retaining 
them in the memory, and of formally applying them in every 
act of life. If, it is said, we could not move a step without 
calculating the effects of the law of gravitation and adjust- 
ing the body to its influence, and could never eat a meal 
without squaring our appetite by the organic laws, life 
would be oppressed by the pedantry of knowledge, and 
rendered miserable by the observance of trivial details. The 
answer to this objection is, that our faculties are adapted 
by the Creator to the external world, and act instinctively 
when their objects are properly placed before them. In 
walking during the day on a foot-path in the country, we 
adjust our steps to. the inequalities of the surface, without 
being overburdened by mental calculation. Indeed, we 
perform this adjustment with so little trouble, that we are 
not aware of having made any particular mental or muscular 
effort. But, on returning by the same path at night, when 
we cannot see, we stumble, and discover, for the first time, 
how important a duty our faculties had been performing 
during day, without our having adverted to their labour. 
Now, the simple medium of light is sufficient to bring 
clearly before our eyes the inequalities of the ground ; but 
to make the mind equally familiar with the nature of the 
countless objects which abound in external nature, and 
their relations, an intellectual light is necessary, which can 
be struck out only by exercising and applying the knowing 
and reflecting faculties ; — when that light is obtained, and 
the qualities and relationships in question are clearly per- 
ceived, our faculties, so long as the light lasts, will act 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 121 

instinctively in adapting our conduct to the nature of the 
objects, just as they do in accommodating our movements to 
the unequal surface of the earth. After the poisonous 
qualities of hemlock are known, it is no more necessary for 
us to go through a course of reasoning on physical, botanical, 
and chemical subjects, in order to be able to abstain from 
eating it, than it is to go through a course of mathematical 
investigation, before lifting the one foot higher than the 
other, in ascending a stair. At present, physical and 
political science, morals, and religion, are not taught as 
parts of one connected system ; nor are the relations be- 
tween them and the constitution of man pointed out to the 
world. Consequently, theoretical and practical knowledge 
are often widely separated. This ought not to be the case ; 
for many advantages would flow from scientific education. 
Some of these would be the following : — 

In the first place, the physical and organic laws, when 
truly discovered, appear to the mind as institutions of the 
Creator ; wise and salutary in themselves, unbending in 
their operation, and universal in their application. They 
interest our intellectual faculties, and strongly impress our 
sentiments. The necessity of obeying them comes home 
to us with all the authority of a mandate from God. While 
we confine ourselves to mere recommendations to beware 
of damp, to observe temperance, or to take exercise, with- 
out explaining the principle, the injunction carries only the 
weight due to the authority of the individual who gives it, 
and is addressed to only two or three faculties, — Veneration 
and Cautiousness, for instance, or Self-love, in him who 
receives it. But if we be made acquainted with the ele- 
ments of the physical world, and with those of our organized 
system, — with the uses of the different parts of the human 
body, and the conditions necessary to their healthy action, 
— with the causes of their derangement, and the pains con- 
sequent thereon ; and if the obligation to attend to these 
conditions be enforced on our moral sentiments and intel- 
lect, as a duty which is imposed on us by the Creator, and 
which we cannot neglect without suffering punishment ; 
then the motives to observe the physical and organic laws, 
as well as the power of doing so, will be prodigiously in- 
creased. Before we can dance well, not only must we know 
the motions, but our muscles must be trained to execute them • 
11 



122 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

and, in like manner, to enable us to act on precepts, not 
only must we comprehend their meaning, but our intellects 
and sentiments must be disciplined into actual performance. 
Now, the very act of acquiring connected scientific in- 
formation concerning the natural world, its qualities, and 
their relations, is to the intellect and sentiments what 
dancing is to the muscles : it invigorates them ; and, as 
obedience to the natural laws must spring from them, 
exercise renders it more easy and delightful. 

Secondly, It is only by being taught the principle on which 
consequences depend, that we become capable of perceiving 
the invariableness of the results of the physical and organic 
laws, acquire confidence in and respect for, the laws them- 
selves, and fairly endeavour to accommodate our conduct to 
their operation. Dr. Johnson defines " principle" to be " fun- 
damental truth ; original postulate ; first position from which 
others are deduced ;" and in these senses I use the word. 
The human faculties are instinctively active, and desire 
gratification ; but Intellect must have fixed data, on which 
to reason, otherwise it is itself a mere impulse. The man 
in whom Constructiveness and Weight are powerful will 
naturally betake himself to constructing machinery ; but, 
if he be ignorant of the principles of mechanical science, he 
will not direct his efforts to such important ends, nor attain 
them with so much success, as if his intellect had been stored 
with this kind of knowledge. Scientific principles are de- 
duced from the laws of nature. A man may make music 
by the instinctive impulses of Tune and Time ; but there are 
immutable laws of harmony, of which if he be ignorant, he 
will not perform so correctly and in such good taste, as he 
would do if he knew them. In every art and science, there 
are principles referrible solely to the constitution of nature, 
but these admit of countless applications. A musician may 
produce gay, grave, solemn, or ludicrous tunes, all good of 
their kind, by following the laws of harmony ; but he will 
never produce one good piece by violating them. While 
the inhabitants west of Edinburgh allowed the stagnant 
pools to deface their fields, some seasons would be more 
healthy than others ; and, while the cause of the disease was 
unsuspected, this would confirm them in the notion that 
health and sickness were dispensed by an overruling Provi- 
dence, on inscrutable principles, which they could not com 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 123 

prehend : but the moment the cause was known, it would 
be found that the most healthy seasons were those which 
were cold and dry, and the most sickly those which were 
warm and moist ; and they would then discover, that the 
superior salubrity of one year, and unwholesomeness of ano- 
ther, were clearly referrible to one principle ; and after per- 
cerving this truth, they would both be more strongly prompt- 
ed to apply the remedy, and be rendered morally and intel- 
lectually more capable of doing so. If some intelligent 
friend had merely told them to drain their fields, and remove 
their dunghills, they would probably not have complied with 
his recommendation; but whenever their intellects were 
led to the perception that the evil would continue until they 
acted in this manner, the improvement would become easy 
The truth of these views may be still farther illustrated 
by examples. A young gentleman of Glasgow, whom I 
knew, went out, as a merchant to North America. Busi- 
ness required him to sail from New-York to St. Domingo. 
The weather was hot, and he, being very sick, found the con- 
finement below deck, in bed, as he said, intolerable ; that is, 
this confinement was, for the moment, more painful than 
the course which he adopted, of laying himself down at full 
length on the deck, in the open air. He was warned by his 
fellow passengers, and the officers of the ship, that he would 
inevitably induce fever by his proceeding; but he was utter- 
ly ignorant of the physical and organic laws : his intellect 
had been trained to regard only wealth and present pleasure 
as objects of real importance; it could perceive no neces- 
sary connexion between exposure to the mild grateful sea- 
breeze of a warm climate, and fever ; and he obstinately re- 
fused to quit his position. The consequence was, that he 
was soon taken ill, and died the day after arriving at St. Do- 
mingo. Knowledge of chemistry and physiology would have 
enabled him, in an instant, to understand that the sea air, in 
warm climates, holds a prodigious quantity of water in solu- 
tion, and that damp and heat, operating together on the human 
organs, tend to derange their healthy action, and ultimately to 
destroy them entirely : and if his sentiments had been deeply 
imbued wiith a feeling of the indispensable duty of yielding 
obedience to the institutions of the Creator, he would have 
actually enjoyed not only a. greater desire^ut a greater power •, 



124 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

of supporting the temporary inconvenience of the heated 
cabin, and might, by possibility, have escaped death. 

A medical gentleman, well known in the literary world, 
has favoured me with the following particulars, suggested 
by a perusal of the second edition of the present work : — 
" On four several occasions I have nearly lost my life from 
infringing the organic laws. When a lad of fifteen, I 
brought on, by excessive study, a brain fever which nearly 
killed me ; at the age of nineteen I had an attack of perito- 
nitis (inflammation of the lining membrane of the abdo- 
men), occasioned by violent efforts in wrestling and leap- 
ing ; while in France ,nine years ago, I was laid up with 
pneumonia (inflammation of the lungs), brought on by dis- 
secting in the great galleries of La Pitie, with my coat and 
hat off in the month of December, the windows next to me 
being constantly open ; and in 1829 I had a dreadful fever, 
occasioned by walking home from a party at which I had 
been da cing, in an exceedingly cold morning, without a 
cloak or greatcoat. I was for four months on my back, and 
did not recover perfectly for more than eighteen months. 
All these evils were entirely of my own creating, and arose 
from a foolish violation of laws which every sensible man 
ought to observe and regulate himself by. Indeed, I have 
always thought — and your book confirms me more fully in 
the sentiment — that, by proper attention, crime and disease, 
and misery of every sort, could, in a much greater measure 
than is generally believed, be banished from the earth, and 
that the true method of doing so is to instruct people in the 
laws which govern their own frame." 

Captain Murray, R. N., mentioned to Dr. A. Combe, that, 
in his opinion, most of the bad effects of the climate of the 
West Indies might be avoided by care and attention to 
clothing ; and that so satisfied was he on this point, that he 
had petitioned to be sent there in preference to the North 
American station, and had no reason to regret the change. 
The measures which he adopted, and their effects, are de- 
tailed in the following interesting and instructive letter :—* 

"My Dear Sir, Assynt, April 22, 1827. 

" I should have written to you before this, had I not been 
anxious to refer to some memorandums, which I could not 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAW8. 125 

do before my return home from Coul. I attribute the great 
good health enjoyed by the crew of his Majesty's ship 
Valorous, when on the West India station, during the period 
I had the honour of commanding her, to the following 
causes : 1st, To the keeping the ship perfectly dry and 
clean ; 2d, To habituating the men to the wearing of flannel 
next the skin ; 3d, To the precaution I adopted, of giving 
each man a proportion of his allowance of cocoa before he 
left the ship in the morning, either for the purpose of 
watering, or any other duty he might be sent upon ; and, 
4th, To the cheerfulness of the crew. 

" The Valorous sailed from Plymouth on the 24th De- 
cember 1823, having just returned from the coast of La- 
brador and Newfoundland, where she had been stationed 
two years, the crew, including officers, amounting to 150 
men. I had ordered the purser to draw two pairs of flannel 
drawers and two shirts extra for each man, as soon as I 
knew that our destination was the West Indies ; and, on 
our sailing, I issued two of each to every man and boy in 
the ship making the officers of each division responsible for 
the men of their respective divisions wearing these flannels 
during the day and night ; and, at the regular morning nine 
o'clock musters, I inspected the crew personally ; for you 
can hardly conceive the difficulty I have had in forcing 
some of the men to use flannel at first ; although I never 
yet knew one who did not, from choice, adhere to it, when 
once fairly adopted. The only precaution after this was to 
see that, in bad weather, the watch, when relieved, did not 
turn in in their wet clothes, which the young hands were 
apt to do, it not looked after ; and their flannels were shifted 
every Sunday. 

" Whenever fresh beef and vegetables could be procured 
at the contract price, they were always issued in preference 
to salt provisions. Lime juice was issued whenever the 
men had been fourteen days on ship's provisions ; and the 
crew took all their meals on the main deck, except in very 
bad weather. 

" The quarter and main decks were scrubbed with sand 
and water, and wet holy-stones, every morning at day -light. 
The lower deck, cock-pit, and store-rooms were scrubbed 
every day after breakfast, with dry holy- stones and hot 
•and, until quite white, the sand being carefully swept up, 
11* 



126 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

and thrown overboard. The pump-well was also swabbed 
out dry, and then scrubbed with holy-stones and hot sand, 
and here, as well as in every part of the ship which was 
liable to damp, Brodie-stoves were constantly used, until 
every appearance of humidity vanished. The lower-deck 
and cock-pit were washed once every week in dry weather ; 
but Brodie-stoves were constantly kept burning in them, 
until they were quite dry again. 

" The hammocks were piped up and in the nettings, from 
7 a. m. until dusk, when the men of each watch took down 
their hammocks alternately ; by which means, only one-half 
of the hammocks being down at a time, the 'tween decks 
were not so crowded, and the watch relieved was sure of 
turning into a dry bed on going below. The bedding was 
aired every week once at least. The men were not permitted 
to go on shore in the heat of the sun, or where there was a 
probability of their getting spirituous liquors ; but all hands 
were indulged with a run on shore, when out of reach of such 
temptation. 

" I was employed on the coast of Caraccas, the West 
India Islands, and Gulf of Mexico ; and, in course of service, 
I visited Trinidad, Margarita, Cocha, Cumana, Nueva, Bar- 
celona, Laguira, Porto Cabello, and Maracaibo, on the coast 
of Caraccas ; all the West India Islands from Tobago to 
Cuba, both inclusive ; as also Curacoa and Aruba, and 
several of these places repeatedly ; also Vera Cruz and 
Tampico, in the Gulf of Mexico, which you will admit must 
have given a trial to the constitutions of my men, after two 
years among the icebergs of Labrador, without an interven- 
ing summer between that icy coast and the coast of Carac- 
cas : yet I arrived in England on June 24th, without having 
buried a single man or officer belonging to the ship, or in- 
deed having a single man on the sick list ; from which I am 
satisfied that a dry ship will always be a healthy one in any 
climate. When in command of the Recruit, of 18 guns, in 
the year 1809, I was sent to Vera Cruz, where I found the 
46, the 42, the 18, and gun- 
brig ; we were joined by the 36, and the 18. 

During the period we remained at anchor (from 8 to 10 
weeks), the three frigates lost from 30 to 50 men each, the 
ferigs 16 to 18, the most of her crew, with two differ- 
ent commanders ; yet the Recruit, although moored in the 



f ROK INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 127 

middle of the squadron, and constant intercourse held with 
the other ships, did not lose a man, and had none sick. 
Now, as some of these ships had been as long in the West 
Indies as the Recruit, we cannot attribute her singularly 
healthy state to seasoning, nor can I to superior cleanliness, 
because even the breeches of the carronades, and all the pins, 

were polished bright in both and , which was 

not the case with the Recruit. Perhaps her healthy state 
may be attributed to cheerfulness in the men ; to my never 
allowing them to go on shore in the morning on an empty 
stomach ; to the use of dry sand and holy-stone for the ship ; 
to never working them in the sun ; perhaps to accident. 
"Were I asked my opinion, I would say that I firmly believed 
that cheerfulness contributes more to keep a ship's company 
healthy, than any precaution that can be adopted ; and that, 
with this attainment, combined with the precautions I have 
mentioned, I should sail for the West Indies with as little 
anxiety as I would for any other station. My Valorous 
fellows were as cheerful a set as I ever saw collected 
together." 

Suppose that two gentlemen were to ascend one of the 
Scottish mountains, in a hot summer day, and to arrive at 
the top, bathed in perspiration, and exhausted with fatigue ; 
that one of them knew intimately the physical and organic 
laws, and that, all hot and wearied as he was, he should but- 
ton up his coat closer about his body, wrap a handkerchief 
about his neck, and continue walking, at a quick pace, round 
the summit, in the full blaze of the sun ; but that the other, 
ignorant of these laws, should eagerly run to the base of a 
projecting cliff, stretch himself at full length on the turf 
under its refreshing shade, open his vest to the grateful 
breeze, and give himself up entirely to the present luxuries 
of coolness and repose : the former, by warding off the rapid 
chill of the cold mountain air, would descend with health 
unimpaired ; while the latter would carry with him, to a cer- 
tainty, the seeds of rheumatism, consumption, or fever, from 
permitting perspiration to be instantaneously checked, and 
the surface of the body to be cooled with an injurious rapidity. 
The death of the young Duke de Leuchtenberg, husband of 
Donna Maria, Queen of Portugal, affords a striking example 
of the operation of these principles. On Monday, the 23d 
of March 1S35, he, in perfect health, went out to shoot. On 



38 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

returning to the palace, he imprudently threw off his coat 
and waistcoat, while yet in a state of profuse perspiration. 
This brought on a cold ; slight at first, but which soon 
began to assume a serious character. On Friday the 27th, 
inflammation appeared; and, on Saturday the 28th, at 
twenty minutes past two p. m., he expired. 

The following case, also illustrative of the points under 
consideration, is one which I have had too good an oppor- 
tunity of observing in all its stages. 

An individual in whom it was my duty as well as pleasure 
to be greatly interested, resolved on carrying Mr. Owen's 
views into practical effect, and set on foot an establishment 
on his principles, at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire. The labour 
and anxiety which he underwent at the commencement of 
the undertaking, gradually impaired an excellent constitu- 
tion ; and, without perceiving the change, he, by way of 
setting an example of industry, took to digging with the 
spade, and actually wrought for fourteen days at this occu- 
pation, although previously unaccustomed to labour. This 
produced haemoptysis or spitting of blood. Being now un- 
able for such severe exertion, he gave up his whole time to 
directing and instructing the people, — about 250 in num- 
ber, — and for two or three weeks spoke the whole day, the 
effusion of blood from his lungs continuing. Nature sank 
rapidly under this irrational treatment, and at last he came 
to Edinburgh for medical advice. When the structure and 
uses of his lungs were explained to him, and when it was 
pointed out that Ms treatment of them had been equally in- 
judicious as if he had thrown lime or dust into his eyes 
after inflammation, he was struck with the extent and con- 
sequences of his ignorance, and exclaimed, " How greatlv 
should I have been benefitted, if one month of the five years 
which I was forced to spend in a vain attempt to acquire a 
mastery over the Latin tongue, had been dedicated to con- 
veying to me information concerning the structure of my 
body, and the causes which preserve and impair its func- 
tions ! M He had departed too widely from the organic laws 
to admit of an easy return : he was seized with inflamma- 
tion of the lungs, and with great difficulty got through that 
attack ; but it impaired his constitution so grievously, that 
he died after a lingering illness of eleven mouths. He ac- 
knowledged, however, even in his severest pain, that he suf- 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 129 

fered under a just law. The lungs, he perceived, were of 
prime importance to life, and a motive to their proper treat- 
ment was provided in this tremendous punishment, inflicted 
for neglecting the conditions requisite to their health. 
Had he given them rest, and returned to obedience to the 
organic law, at the first intimation of departure from it, the 
way to health was open and ready to receive him ; but, in 
utter ignorance, he persevered for weeks in direct opposition 
to that law, till the fearful result ensued. 

This last case affords a striking illustration of a principle 
already more than once insisted on, the independence of the 
different laws of the Creator, and of the necessity of obey- 
ing all of them, as the only condition of safety and enjoy- 
ment. The individual here alluded to, was deeply engaged 
in a most benevolent and disinterested experiment for pro- 
moting the welfare of his fellow-creatures ; and superficial 
observers would say that this was just an example of the 
inscrutable decrees of Providence, which visited him with 
sickness, and ultimately with death, in the very midst of his 
most virtuous exertions. But the institutions of the Crea- 
tor are wiser than the imaginations of such men. The first 
condition on which existence on earth and all its advantages 
depend, is obedience to the physical and organic laws. The 
benevolent Owenite neglected these, in his zeal to obey the 
moral law ; and since if it were possible to dispense with 
the one by obeying the other, the whole scheme of man's 
existence would speedily be involved in inexplicable disorder, 
he was made to suffer the punishment of his neglect. 

The following case was furnished to me by an actual ob- 
server. A gentleman far advanced in years fell into a state 
of bodily weakness, which rendered necessary the constant 
presence of an attendant. A daughter, in whom the organs of 
Adhesiveness, Benevolence, and Veneration were largely de- 
veloped, devoted herself to this service with the most cease- 
less assiduity. She was his companion for month after 
month, and year after year — happy in cheering the last days 
of her respected parent, and knowing no pleasure equal to 
that of solacing and comforting him. For months in suc- 
cession she went not abroad from the house ; her duty be- 
came dearer to her the longer she discharged it, till at length 
her father became the sole object on earth of her feelings 
and her thoughts. The superficial observer would say that 



130 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

this conduct was admirable and that she must have received 
a rich reward from Heaven for such becoming and virtuous 
devotion. But Providence rules on other principles, and 
never yields. Her enjoyment of mental happiness and vigour 
depended on the condition of her brain, and her brain was 
subject to the organic laws. These laws demand, as an in- 
dispensable condition of health, exercise in the open air, and 
variety of employment, calculated to maintain all the facul- 
ties in activity. She neglected the first in her constant at- 
tendance in her father's chamber ; and she overlooked the 
second in establishing him as the exclusive object of her con- 
sideration. The result was, that she fell into bad health, 
accompanied by weakness of brain, extreme irritability and 
susceptibility of mind, excessive anxiety, hysteria, and even 
symptoms of insanity. Some judicious friends at last inter- 
fered, and by forcing her to leave for a time, although much 
against her inclination, the object of her solicitude, rescued 
her from death, or confirmed mental derangement. If this 
case had been allowed to proceed uninterruptedly to its na- 
tural termination, many pious persons would have marvelled 
at the mysterious dispensations of Providence in afflicting 
so dutiful a daughter ; whereas, when the principle of the 
divine government is understood, the result appears neither 
wonderful nor perplexing. 

In the works of religious authors may be found many 
erroneous views of divine dispensations, traceable to igno- 
rance of the natural laws. The Reverend Ebenezer Erskine, 
speaking of the state of his wife's mind, says, " For a month 
or two the arrows of the Almighty were within her, the poi- 
son whereof did drink up her spirits ; and the terrors of God 
did set themselves in array against her." He called in the 
assistance of some neighbouring clergymen to join in prayers 
on her behalf, and she was induced to pray with them ; but 
" she still continued to charge herself with the unpardonable 
sin, and to conclude that she was a cast-away." Such feel- 
ings occurring in a woman of blameless life, clearly indicated 
diseased action in the organs of Cautiousness. " Before 
she fell into these depths," he continues, " she told me that 
the Lord gave her such a discovery of the glory of Christ as 
darkened the whole creation, and made all thing3 appear as 
dung and dross in comparison of him." These expressions 
indicate morbid excitement of the organs of Wonder and 



PROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 131 

Veneration. She subsequently recovered her mental sere- 
nity ; and her husband treats of the whole phenomena as 
purely mental and religious. He, however, afterward 
incidentally mentions that she was subject to bad health, and 
that " melancholy was a great ingredient in her disease." 
We now know that melancholy is a diseased affection of 
the organs of Cautiousness. 

At the time when Mr Erskine lived and wrote, the phy- 
siology of the brain was unknown ; the occurrences which 
he describes had a real existence ; and he had been taught to 
attribute them to the agency of the Divine Spirit, or the 
devil, according to their different characters. He is, there- 
fore, not deserving of censure for the errors into which he 
unavoidably fell ; but now when the facts which he de- 
scribes, and analogous occurrences in our own day, can be 
traced to diseased action of the organs of the mind, we are 
authorized to view the providence of God in a different light. 
While it would be subversive of all religion to throw any 
doubt whatever on the reality and importance of religious 
feelings, sound in their character and directed to proper ob- 
jects, it is nearly equally injurious to the sacred cause, to 
mistake the excitement and depression of disease for the in- 
fluence of the Holy Spirit, or the agency of the enemy of 
mankind. 

It is farther mentioned in the Life of Mr Erskine, that his 
wife bore several children to him while in precarious health, 
and that the situation " of the manse, or parsonage house, 
was unwholesome" We are told, also, that in the year 1713, 
three of his children died ; that one died in 1720 ; and that, 
in 1723, a fifth was on the brink of death, but recovered.* 
He treats of all these events as " severe trials," and " sore 
afflictions," without having the least glimpse of their true 
causes and objects, or their relation to the natural laws. 

Another illustration will not be out of place. Hannah 
More, in a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated Cowslip 
Green, 23d July 1788, says, " When I am in the great 
world, I consider myself as in an enemy's country, and 
as beset with snares, and this puts me upon my guard." 
" Fears and snares seem necessary to excite my circum- 

* Life and Diary of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine. Edinburgh, 1831, 
pp. 266, 301, 286, 290, 320. 



132 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

spcction ; for it is certain that my mind has mor6 languor, 
and my faith less energy here, where I have no temptations 
from without, and where I live in the full and constant pe- 
rusal of the most beautiful objects of inanimate nature, the 
lovely wonders of the munificence and bounty of God. Yet, 
in the midst of his blessings, I should be still more tempted 
to forget him, were it not for frequent nervous headachs and 
low fevers, which I find to be wonderfully wholesome for my 
moral health." * 

This passage contains several propositions that merit 
attention. First, according to the natural laws, " the most 
beautiful objects of inanimate nature," and " the lovely 
wonders of the munificence and bounty of God," are cal- 
culated to invigorate the moral, religious, and intellectual 
faculties, in all well constituted and rightly instructed 
minds ; yet Hannah More's mind " had more languor, and 
her faith less energy," amidst such objects, than " when 
beset with snares :" Secondly, according both to the na- 
tural laws and scripture, " evil communications corrupt 
good manners ;" but " when in the great world," and " in 
an enemy's country," her faith was improved : And, thirdly, 
" nervous headachs and low fevers" are the consequences 
of departures from the organic laws, and are intended to 
reclaim the sufferer to obedience that the pain may cease ; 
yet she " found them wonderfully wholesome for her moral 
health," and they prevented her from " forgetting God !" 

Only disease, or errors in education, could have produced 
such perverted experience in a woman so talented, so pious, 
and so excellent as Hannah Mere. Can we wonder that 
the profane should sneer, and that practical religion should 
slowly advance, when piety exhibits itself in such lamentable 
contradiction to the divine institutions 1 And still more so, 
when from proceeding on a false theory, it contradicts 
itself? Hannah More, in her Journal in 1794, says, " Con- 
fined this week with four days' headach — an unprofitable 
time — thoughts wandering — little communion with God. 
I see by every fresh trial, that the time of sickness is seldom 
the season for religious improvement. This great work 
should be done in health, or it will seldom be done well." 
Vol. ii. p. 418. This passage is full of sound sense ; but it 

* Memoirs of H. More, Vol. ii. p. 110, 111. 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 133 

contradicts her previous assertion, that " nervous headachs 
and low fevers were wonderfully wholesome for her moral 
health." 

These examples, to which many more might be added, 
may serve as illustrations of the proposition, That without 
philosophy of human nature, even religious authors, when 
treating of sublunary events, cannot always preserve con- 
sistency either with reason or with themselves ; and that 
hence religion can never become thoroughly practical, or put 
forth its full energies for human improvement, until it is 
wedded to philosophy. In proportion as men shall become 
acquainted with the natural laws, and apply them as tests 
to theological writings relative to this world, they will be- 
come convinced of the truth of this observation. 

Having traced bodily suffering, in the case of individuals, 
to neglect of, or opposition to, the organic laws, by their 
progenitors or by themselves, I next advert to another set of 
calamities, which may be called social miseries, and which 
obviously spring from the same causes. And first, in regard 
to evils of a domestic nature : — 

One fertile source of unhappiness arises from persons 
uniting in marriage, whose tempers, talents, and dispositions 
do not harmonize. If it be true that natural talents and 
dispositions are connected by the Creator with particular 
configurations of brain, then it is obviously one of His in- 
stitutions, that, in forming a compact for life, these con- 
figurations should be attended to. The following facts I 
regard to be fully established by competent evidence. The 
portion of the brain before the line AB, Fig. 1, manifests the 
intellect, that above BC manifests the moral sentiments, and 
all the rest the animal sentiments and propensities ; and 
each part acts, cateris paribus, with a degree of energy 
corresponding to its size. The following figures exhibit 
these regions of the head existing in different proportions 
in different individuals ; and the lives of the persons 
represented bear testimony to their possessing the cor- 
responding dispositions. 

The first is a view of the head of William Hare, the as- 
sociate of Burke, who, acting in concert with him, strangled 
sixteen individuals in Edinburgh for the purpose of selling 
their bodies for dissection. 

12 



134 



ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

Fig. 1. Hare. 




In this head the organs of the animal propensities de- 
cidedly preponderate over those of the moral sentiments and 
intellect. 

Another example of the same kind is afforded by the 
head of Williams, who was executed along with the no- 
torious Bishop, in London, for the same crime as that of 
Hare.* 

* Soe Phrenological Journal, yoI. vii. p. 446, 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 135 

Fig. 2. Williams. 




Id the head of the celebrated Richard Brinsely Sherid** 
(of which a cast was taken after death), we find an example 
of the three regions of the brain in question, existing nearly 
in a state of equilibrium. The natural tendencies of such 
an individual are equally strong towards vice and virtue ; 
and his actual conduct is generally determined by the in- 
fluence of external circumstances. 

Fig. 3. Sheridan. 




13G 



ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 



The Life of Sheridan shows, that while he possessed high 
mental qualities, he was also the slave of degrading and 
discreditable vices. 

The head of Philip Melancthon, the illustrious reformer 
and associate of Luther, furnishes an example of the decided 
predominance of the moral and intellectual regions over that 
of the animal propensities. The drawing is copied from a 
portrait by Albert Durer. 

The following description of Melancthon' s head and cha- 
racter is given in Dr. Spurzheim's work on Phrenology in 
Connexion with Physiognomy. " It is the brain of an ex- 
traordinary man. The organs of the moral and religious 
feelings predominate greatly, and will disapprove of all 
violence, irreverence, and injustice. The forehead betokens 
a vast and comprehensive understanding ; and the ensemble 
a mind the noblest, the most amiable, and the most intellec- 

Fig. 4. Melancthon. 




FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 137 

tual that can be conceived." " Never was any man more 
civil and obliging, and more free from jealousy, dissimula- 
tion, and envy, than Melancthon : he was humble, modest, 
disinterested in the extreme ; in a word, he possessed won- 
derful talents, and most noble dispositions. His greatest 
enemies have been forced to acknowledge that the annals 
of antiquity exhibit very few worthies who may be com- 
pared with him, whether extent of knowledge in things 
human and divine, or quickness of comprehension and fer- 
tility of genius, be regarded. The cause of true Chris- 
tianity derived more signal advantages, and more effectual 
support, from Melancthon, than it received from any of the 
other doctors of the age. His mildness and charity, per- 
haps, carried him too far at times, and led him occasionally 
to make concessions that might be styled imprudent. He 
was the sincere worshipper of truth, but he was diffident of 
himself, and sometimes timorous without any sufficient 
reason. On the other hand, his fortitude in defending the 
right was great. His opinions were so universally respect- 
ed, that scarcely any one among the Lutheran doctors 
ventured to oppose them. He was inferior to Luther in 
courage and intrepidity, but his equal in piety, and much 
his superior in learning, judgment, meekness, and humanity. 
He latterly grew tired of his life, and was particularly dis- 
gusted with the rage for religious controversies, which pre- 
vailed universally."* 

With the head of Melancthon may be contrasted that of 
Pope Alexander VI. 

* Phrenology in Connexion with the Study of Physiognomy, p. 163. 



!»• 



138 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

Fig. 5. Pope Alexander VI. 




"This cerebral organization," says Dr. Spurzheim, "is 
despicable in the eyes of a phrenologist. The animal or- 
gans compose by far its greatest portion. Such a brain is 
no more adequate to the manifestation of Christian virtues, 
than the brain of an idiot from birth to the exhibition of the 
intellect of a Leibnitz or a Bacon. The cervical and whole 
basilar region of the head are particularly developed ; the 
organs of the perceptive faculties are pretty large ; but the 
sincipital (or coronal) region is exceedingly low, particu- 
larly at the organs of Benevolence, Veneration, and Con- 
scientiousness. Such a head is unfit for any employment 
of a superior kind, and never gives birth to sentiments of 
humanity. The sphere of its activity does not extend be- 
yond those enjoyments which minister to the animal por- 
tion of human nature. 



FfrOM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 139 

** Alexander VI. was, in truth, a scandal to the papal 
chair : from the earliest age he was disorderly and artful, 
and his life to the last was infamous. He is said to have 
bought the tiara by bribing a certain number of cardinals, or 
rather by making large promises, which he never fulfilled. 
It is well known that, w r hen he became Pope, he had a family 
of five children, four boys and one daughter. He made a 
regular practice of selling bishoprics and other ecclesiastical 
benefices, to enrich himself and his family. Though pro- 
fane and various religious writers do not all agree in their 
judgment concerning the disorderly conduct of this man, 
many atrocities committed by him are well-ascertained facts. 
History will always accuse him of the crimes of poisoning, 
.simony, and false-swearing, of reckless debauchery, nay of 
incest with his own daughter. In political matters, he 
formed alliances with all the princes of his time, but his 
ambition and perfidy never failed to find him a pretext for 
breaking his word, and disturbing the peace." *' As a singu- 
lar example of Alexander's arrogance, his bull may be men- 
tioned, by which he took upon him to divide the new w r orld 
between the kings of Spain and Portugal, granting to the 
former all the territory on the west of an imaginary line 
passing from north to south, at one hundred leagues distance 
from the Cape de Verd Islands. Alexander possessed elo- 
quence and address, but a total lack of noble sentiments 
rendered him altogether unfit for his sacred station. Poi- 
soned wine, which had been prepared for certain cardinals 
whose riches tempted the oupidity of his holiness, was given 
him by mistake, and ended his profligate career. Some 
writers have questioned the truth of this account of Alexan- 
der's death, but there is nothing in the relation inconsistent 
with the acknowledged character of this pontiff. Lowness 
of feelings and lowness of brain are seen together." * 

As an additional illustration of this concluding remark, I 
subjoin a representation of the head of Vitellius, one of the 
most cruel and depraved of the Roman emperors. 

*<Gp.cit.p. 71. 



140 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

Fig. 6 VlTELLlUS. 




This head is very broad in proportion to its height ; in- 
dicating a very great development of the base of the brain, 
with deficiency of the organs of the moral sentiments. 

The demarcations in Fig. 1. are not arbitrary. The space 
before A B corresponds to the anterior lobe of the brain ; 
and the space above B C includes all the convolutions that 
lie on the upper surface of the brain, and rise higher than 
the organs of Cautiousness, corresponding to nearly the 
middle of the parietal bones, and of Causality, situated in the 
upper part of the forehead. It is generally not difficult to 
distinguish these regions ] and a comparison of their rela- 
tive proportions with the talents and dispositions of individ- 
uals, will convince any intelligent, honest, and accurate 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 141 

observer, of the truth of the foregoing statements. I have 
examined the heads or skulls, and casts of the heads or 
skulls, of several hundred criminals of various countries, and 
found them all to belong to the classes represented by the 
figures of the heads of Hare or of Sheridan ; and I never 
saw one of them with a brain like that of Melancthon. 
Neither have I ever seen a man distinguished by moral and 
intellectual qualities like those of Melancthon, presenting a 
brain like that of Hare. The figures represent nature — not 
a casual appearance, but forms which are found constantly 
in combination with the qualities here named ; and I ask 
why Nature, when she speaks to a geologist or chemist, 
should be listened to with profound attention, and her reve- 
lations treasured for human improvement, — but scouted 
and despised when she speaks to and is interpreted by phre- 
nologists 1 It is God who speaks from nature in all its de- 
partments : and the brain is as assuredly his workmanship 
as the Milk Way, with all its myriads of suns. If the doc- 
trine before expounded be true, that every faculty is good in 
itself, that the folly and crime which disgrace human society 
spring from abuses of the faculties, and that the tendency to 
abuse them originates in the disproportion of certain parts of 
the brain to each other, and in ignorance of the proper mode 
of manifesting them, how completely do these considerations 
go to the root of theology and morals ! At present the in- 
fluence of organization in determining the natural dispo- 
sitions is altogether neglected or denied by the common 
school of divines, moralists, and philosophers ; yet it is of an 
importance exceeding all other terrestrial influences and 
considerations. 

If, under the influence of youthful passion and inexperi- 
ence, an individual endowed with the splendid cerebral de- 
velopment of Melancthon, should unite himself for life to a 
female possessing a head like that of Hare, Williams, or 
Vitellius, the effects could not fail to be most disastrous, 
with respect both to his own happiness and to the qualities 
of his offspring. In the first place, after the animal feelings 
were gratified, and their ardour had subsided, the two minds 
could not by any possibility sympathize. Pvlany marriages 
are unhappy in consequence of an instinctive discord be- 
tween the modes of feeling and thinking of the husband 
and wife, the cause of which they themselves cannot explain. 



142 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANEINP 

The mental differences will be found to arise from different 
configurations and qualities of brain. Thus, if the husband 
be deficient in the organ of Conscientiousness, and the wife 
possess it in a high degree, she will be secretly disgusted 
with the dishonesty and inherent falsehood of his character, 
which she will have many opportunities of observing, even 
when they are unknown to the world ; while, on the other 
hand, few conditions are more lamentable tnan that of an 
intellectual and well educated man, irretrievably doomed to 
the society of an ignorant, jealous, narrow-minded wife. 
The following picture, in Crabbe's Tales of the Hall, is 
evidently drawn from nature : — 

Five years had passed, and what was Henry then 1 

The most repining of repenting men ; 

With a fond, teasing, anxious wife, afraid 

Of all attention to another paid : 

Yet powerless she her husband to amuse, 

Lives but t' entreat, implore, resent, accuse : 

Jealous and tender, conscious of defects, 

She merits little, and yet much expects ; 

She looks for love that now she cannot see, 

And sighs for joy that never more can be. 

On his retirements her complaints intrude, 

And fond reproof endears his solitude : , 

While he her weakness (once her kindness) sees, 

And his affections in her languor freeze. 

Regret, unchecked by hope, devours his mind ; 

He feels unhappy, and he grows unkind. 

" Fool ! to be taken by a rosy cheek, 

And eyes that cease to sparkle or to speak ; 

Fool ! for this child my freedom to resign, 

When one the glory of her sex was mine; 

While from this burthen to my soul I hide, 

To think what Fate has dealt, and what denied. 

What fiend possessed me when I tamely gave 

My forced assent to be an idiot's slave 1 

Her beauty vanished, what for me remains 1 

Th' eternal clicking of the galling chains. 5 ' 

" What," says Dr. Johnson, " can be expected but dis- 
appointment and repentance from a choice made in the 
immaturity of youth, in the ardour of desire, without judg- 
ment, without foresight, without inquiry after conformity 
of opinions, similarity of manners, rectitude of judgment, 
or purity of sentiment 1 Such is the common process of 



FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 143 

marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or 
Drought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate 
civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having 
iittle to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find 
themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore con- 
clude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and 
discover what nothing but voluntary blindness before had 
concealed ; they wear out life in altercations, and charge 
nature with cruelty." — (Rasselas, ch. 29.) 

Until Phrenology was discovered, no natural index to 
mental qualities, that could be safely relied on, was pos- 
sessed, and each individual, in directing his conduct, was 
left to the guidance of his own sagacity. But the natural 
law never bended one iota to accommodate itself to that 
state of ignorance. Men suffered from unsuitable alliances ; 
and they will continue to do so, until they shall avail them- 
selves of the means of judging afforded by Phrenology, and 
act in accordance with its dictates. In the play of the 
Gamester, Mrs Beverly is represented as a most excellent 
wife, acting habitually under the guidance of the moral 
sentiments and intellect, but married to a being who, while 
he adores her, reduces her to beggary and misery. His 
sister utters an exclamation to this effect : — Why did just 
Heaven unite such an angel to so heartless a thing ! The 
parallel of this case occurs too often in real life ; only it is 
not " just Heaven" that makes such matches, — but ignorant 
and thoughtless human beings, who imagine themselves 
absolved from all obligation to study and obey the laws of 
Heaven, as announced in the general arrangement of the 
universe. 

The justice and benevolence of rendering the individuals 
themselves unhappy, who neglect this great institution of 
the Creator, will become more striking when, in the next 
place, we consider the effects,, by the organic laic, of such co?i- 
duct on the children of these ill assorted unions. 

Physiologists, in general, are agreed, that a vigorous and 
healthy constitution of body in the parents, communicates 
existence in the most perfect state to the offspring, and vice 
versa. The transmission of various diseases from parents 
to children is a matter of universal notoriety : thus con- 
sumption, gout, scrofula, hydrocephalus, rheumatism, and 
insanity, are well known as maladies which descend from 



144 ORGANIC LAWS. 

generation to generation. Strictly speaking, it is not disease 
which is transmitted, but organs of such imperfect structure 
Jiat they are unable to perform their functions properly, 
and so weak as to be easily put into a morbid condition by 
causes which sound organs are able to resist. Blindness 
is often, though not uniformly, a hereditary defect. There 
is a family in North America, some individuals of which 
have been affected with blindness for the last hundred 
years.* A medical friend writes : — " I have known more 
than one instance of blindness descending in families ; and 
have also known instances where the parents were blind 
without the children labouring under this infliction." 

Form size, and quality of the brain, like those of other 
parts of the body, are transmissible from parents to children ; 
and hence dispositions and talents are transmissible also, as 
has been long remarked, not only by medical authors, but 
by attentive observers in general : — 

Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis ; 
Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum 
Virtus : nee imbellem feroces 
Progenerant aquilse columbam. 

Hon. 1. iv. od. 4. 

The following remarks, by Professor John Gregory, are 
extracted from his Comparative View of the State and 
Faculties of Man with those of the Animal World. " By a 
proper attention we can preserve and improve the breed of 
horses, dogs, cattle, and indeed all other animals. Yet it 
is amazing this observation was never transferred to the 
human species, where it would be equally applicable. It is 
certain that, notwithstanding our promiscuous marriages, 
many families are distinguished by peculiar circumstances 
in their character. This family character, like a family 
face, will often be lost in one generation, and appear again 
in the succeeding. Without doubt, education, habit, and 
emulation, may contribute greatly in many cases to keep it 
up ; but it will be generally found, that, independent of 
these, Natuie has stamped an original impression on certain 
minds, which education may greatly alter or efface, but 
seldom so entirely as to prevent its traces being seen by an 

* New York M&dical Repository, vol. iii. No, 1. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 145 

accurate observer. How a certain character or constitution 
of mind can be transmitted from a parent to a child, is a 
question of more difficulty than importance. It is indeed 
equally difficult to account for the external resemblance of 
features, or for bodily diseases being transmitted from a 
parent to a child. But we never dream of a difficulty in 
explaining any appearance of nature which is exhibited to 
us every day. A proper attention to this subject would 
enable us to improve not only the constitutions but the 
characters of our posterity. Yet we every day see very 
sensible people, who are anxiously attentive to preserve or 
improve the breed of their horses, tainting the blood of 
their children, and entailing on them not only the most 
loathsome diseases of the body, but madness, folly, and the 
most unworthy dispositions, and this too when they cannot 
plead being stimulated by necessity, or impelled by pas- 
sion."* 

Dr. James Gregory also, in treating of the temperaments 
in his Conspectus Medicines, Theorctica, says, " Hujusmodi 
varietates non corporis modo, verum et animi quoque, ple- 
rumque congenitae, nonnunquam hsereditarias, observantur. 
Hoc modo parentes saepe in prole reviviscunt ; certe parenti- 
bus liberi similes sunt, non vultum modo et corporis formam. 
sed animi indolem, et virtutes, et vitia. Imperiosa gens 
Claudia diu Romae floruit, impigra, ferox, superba ; eadem 
illachrymabilem Tiberium, tristissimum tyrannum, produx- 
it ; tandem in immanem Caligulam, et Claudium, et Agrip- 
pinam, ipsumque demum Neronem, post sexcentos annos, 
desitura/'t — Cap. i. sect. 10. 

A celebrated French writer, who has written much sound 
as well as false philosophy, observes, that " physical organ- 
ization, of which moral is the offspring, transmits the same 
character from father to son through a succession of ages. 
The Apii were always haughty and inflexible, the Catos 
always severe. The whole line of the Guises were bold, rash, 
factious ; compounded of the most insolent pride and the 
most seductive politeness. From Francis de Guise to him 

* Comparative View, &6. 3d edit. Lond. 1766, pp. 18, 19. 

t Parents frequently live again in their offspring. It is quite cer- 
tain that children resemble their parents, not only in countenance and 
the form of their body, but also in their mental dispositions, in their 
virtues and vices, &c. 

13 



146 ORGANIC LAWS' 

who alone and m silence went and put himself at the heraf 
of the people of Naples, they were all, in figure, in courage, 
and in turn of mind, above ordinary men. I have seen 
whole-length portraits of Francis de Guise, of the Balafre, 
and of his son : they are all six feet high, with the same fea>» 
tures, the same courage and boldness in the forehead, the eye, 
and the attitude. This continuity, this series of being alike, 
is still more observable in animals ; and if as much care 
were taken to perpetuate fine races of men, as some nations 
still take to prevent the mixing of the breeds of their horses 
and hounds, the genealogy would be written in the counte- 
nance and displayed in the manners." * 

Dr. King, in speaking of the fatality which attended the 
House of Stewart, says, " If I were to ascribe their calam- 
ities to another cause (than an evil fate), or endeavour to ac- 
count for them by any natuarl means, I should think they 
were chiefly owing to a certain obstinacy of temper , which 
appears to have been hereditary and inherent in all the Stuarts 
except Charles II." 

It is well known that the caste of the Brahmins is the 
highest in point of intelligence as well as rank of all the castes 
in Hindostan ; and it is mentioned by the missionaries as 
an ascertained fact, that their children are naturally moro 
acute, intelligent, and docile, than the children of the inferior 
castes, age and other circumstances being equal. 

Dr. John Mason Good observes, that " stupidity, like wit, 
is propagable ; and hence we frequently see it run from ono 
generation to another, and not unfrequently it forms a dis- 
tinctive mark in the mental character of districts or nations 
— in many cases, indeed, where they border closely on each 
other." f 

The character of the mother seems to have the chief in 
fluence in determining the qualities of the children, parti- 
cularly where she has much force of character, and is supe- 
rior in mental energy to her husband. There is perhaps no 
instance of a man of distinguished vigour and activity of 
mind whose mother did not display a considerable amount of 
the same qualities ; and the fact of eminent men having so 
frequently children far inferior to themselves, is, in most 

* Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, Art. Cato. 
t Study of Medicine, 2d edit, vol. iv. p. 137. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. l4T 

tases, explicable by the circumstance that men of talent often 
marry women whose minds are comparatively weak. When 
the mother's brain is very defective, the minds of the chil- 
dren are inevitably feeble. " We know," says Haller, " a 
very remarkable instance of two noble females, who got hus- 
bands on account of their wealth, although they were nearly 
idiots, and from whom this mental defect has extended foi a 
century into several families, so that some of all their descen- 
dants still continue idiots in the fourth and even in the fifth 
generation.'** In many families, the qualities of both father 
and mother are seen blended in the children. " In my own 
case," says a medical friend, " I can trace a very marked 
combination of the qualities of both parents. My father is 
a large-chested, strong, healthy man, with a large but not 
active brain ; — my mother was a spare, thin woman, with a 
high nervous temperament, a rather delicate frame, and a 
mind of uncommon activity. Her brain I should suppose to 
have been of moderate size. I often think that to the father 
I am indebted for a strong frame and the enjoyment of ex- 
cellent health, and to the mother for activity of mind and an 
excessive fondness for exertion. These things, and a hun- 
dred more, have been brought to my mind by the perusal of 
the Constitution of Man." Finally, it often happens that 
the mental peculiarities of the father are transmitted to some 
of the children, and those of the mother to others. 

Phrenology reveals the principle on which dispositions 
and talents are thus hereditary. Mental qualities are deter- 
mined by the size, form, and constitution of the brain. .The 
brain is a portion of our organized system, and, as such, is 
subject to the organic laws, by one of which, as already ob- 
served, its form, size, and qualities are transmitted by hered- 
itary descent. This law, however faint or obscure it may 
appear in individual eases, becomes absolutely undeniable in 
nations. When we place the collection of Hindoo, Carib, 
Esquimaux, Peruvian, and Swiss skulls, possessed by the 
Phrenological Society, in juxtaposition, we perceive a na- 
tional form and combination of organs in each, actually ob- 
truding itself upon our notice, and corresponding with the 
mental characters of the respective tribes ; the cerebral de- 
y£lop.men.t of one tribe is seen to differ as widely from that of 

* £lem. Physicfl. lib. xxix, sect. 2, § 8, 



143 ORGANIC LAV/3. 

another, as the European mind does from that of the Carib. 
Here, then, each Hindoo, Esquimaux, Peruvian, and Carib, 
obviously inherits from his parents a certain general type of 
head ; and so does each European, and if the general 
forms and proportions are thus so palpably transmitted, can 
we doubt that the individual varieties follow the same rule, 
modified slightly by causes peculiar to the parents of the in- 
dividual ] The differences of national character are equally 
conspicuous as those of national brains^ and it is surprising 
how permanently both endure. It is observed by an author 
cited in the Edinburgh Review, that " the Vincentine dis- 
trict is, as every one knows, and has been for ages, an inte- 
gral part of the Venetian dominions, professing the same 
religion, and governed by the same laws, as the other conti- 
nental provinces of Venice : yet the English character is 
not more different from the French, than that of the Vincen- 
tine from the Paduan ; whiie the contrast between the 
Vincentine and his other neighbour, the Veronese, is hardly 
less remarkable." — No. lxxxiv. p. 459. See Appendix, No. v. 
A striking and undeniable proof of the effect on the cha- 
racter and dispositions of children, produced by the form of 
brain transmitted to them by hereditary descent, is to be 
found in the progeny of marriages between Europeans, 
whose brains possess a favourable development of the moral 
and intellectual organs, and Hindoos and native Americans, 
whose brains are inferior. A\\ authors agree, and report 
the circumstance as singularly striking, that the children of 
such unions are decidedly superior in mental qualities to the 
native, while they are still inferior to the European parent. 
Captain Franklin says, that the half-breed American Indians 
" are upon the whole a good-looking people* and, where the 
experiments have been made, have shown much expertness 
in learning, and willingness to be taught ; they have, how- 
ever, been sadly neglected." — First Journey, p. 86. He 
adds, " It has been remarked, I do not know with what truth, 
that half-breeds shows more personal courage than the pure 
breeds." Captain Basil Hall, and other writers on South 
America, mention, that the offspring of aboriginal and 
Spanish parents constitute the most active, vigorous, and 
powerful portion of the inhabitants of these countries ; and 
that many of them rose to high commands during the revo- 
lutionary war. So much is this the case in Hindustan, thai 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 149 

several writers have already pointed to the mixed race there, 
as obviously destined to become the future sovereigns of 
India. These individuals inherit from the native parent a 
certain adaptation to the climate, and from the European 
parent a higher development of brain; the two combined 
constituting their superiority. 

Another example of the same law occurs in Persia. It 
rs said, that in that country the custom has existed for ages 
among the nobles, of purchasing beautiful female Circassian 
and Georgian captives, and forming alliances with them as 
wives. It is ascertained that the Circassian and Georgian 
form of brain stands comparatively high in the development 
of the moral and intellectual organs.* And it is mentione 1 
by some travellers, that the race of nobles in Pepsia is the 
most gifted in natural qualities, bodily and mental, of and 
class in that country ; a fact diametrically opposite to that 
which takes place in Spain, and other European countries, 
where the noble* intermarry constantly with each other, 
and set the organic laws altogether at defianee. It is a 
general rule, to which I shall afterward more fully advert, 
that close affinity of parents produces a deteriorating in- 
$uenee @n the children. The degeneracy and even idiocy 
of some of the noble and royal families of Spain and Por- 
tugal, from marrying nieces and other near relations, is 
we'll known ; and defective brains, in all these cases, may 
be observed. 

If then, form, size, and constitution of brain, are trans- 
mitted from parents to children, and if these determine 
natural mental talents and dispositions, which in their turn 
exercise the greatest influence over the happiness of indi- 
viduals through the whole of life, it becomes extremely im- 
portant to discover according to what laws this transmission 
takes place. At the first aspect of the question, three prin- 
ciples present themselves to our consideration. Either, in 
the first place, the constitution, size, and configuration of 
brain, which the parents themselves inherited at birth, are 
transmitted absolutely, so that the children, sex following 

* In Mr. W. Allan's picture of the Circassian Captives, die form 
of the head is said to be a copy from nature, taken by that artist when 
he visited the country. It is engraved by Mr. James Stewart with 
great beauty and fidelity, and may be consulted as an example of the 
superiority of Circassian development of the braia 
13* 



150 ORGANIC LAWS. 

sex, are exact copies, without variation or modification, of 
the one parent or the other ; or, secondly, the natural and 
inherent qualities of the father and mother combine, and 
are transmitted in a modified form to the offspring ; or, 
thirdly , the qualities of the children are determined jointly 
by the constitution of the stock, and by the faculties which 
predominate in power and activity in the parents at the 
particular time when the organic existence of each child 
commences. 

Experience shows that the first cannot be the law : for, 
as often mentioned, a real law of nature admits of no ex* 
ceptions ; and it is well established, that the minds of chil- 
dren are not exact copies, without variation or modification, 
of those of the parents, sex, following sex. Neither can the 
second be the law ; because it is equally certain that the 
minds of children, although sometimes, are not always, in 
talents and dispositions exact blended reproductions of the 
father and mother. If this law prevailed, no child would 
be a copy of the father, none a copy of the mother or of any 
collateral relation ; but each would be invariably a com- 
pound of the two parents, and all the children would be 
exactly alike, sex alone excepted. Experience shows that 
this is not the law. What, then, does experience say to 
the third idea, that the mental character of each child is 
determined by the particular qualities of the stock, com- 
bined with those which predominate in the parents when its 
existence commenced 1 

I have already adverted to the influence of the stock, and 
shall now illustrate that of the condition of the parents, 
when existence is communicated. For this purpose we may 
consider, 1st, The transmission of factitious or temporary 
conditions of the body ; 2dly, The transmission of acquired 
habits ; 3dly, The appearance of peculiarities in children, in 
consequence of impressions made on the mind of the mother ; 
and, A=thly, The transmission of temporary mental and bodily 
qualities. 

1. With respect to the first of these topics, Dr. Prichard, 
in his Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, 
states the result of his investigations to be, first, That the 
organization of the offspring is always modelled according 
to the type of the original structure of the parent ; and. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 151 

secondly, "That changes produced by external causes in 
the appearance or constitution of the individual are tempo- 
rary ; and, in general, acquired characters are transient ; 
they terminate with the individual, and have no influence 
on the progeny." — Vol. ii. p. 536. He supports the first 
of these propositions by a variety of facts occurring " in 
the porcupine family," " in the hereditary nature of com- 
plexion," and " in the growth of supernumerary fingers 01 
toes, and corresponding deficiencies." " Maupertuis has 
mentioned this phenomenon ; he assures us, that there were 
two families in Germany, who have been distinguished for 
several generations by six fingers on each hand, and the 
same number of toes on each foot," &c. Dr. Prichard ad- 
mits, at the same time, that the second proposition is of 
more difficult proof, and that " an opinion contrary to it has 
been maintained by some writers, and a variety of singular 
facts have been related in support of it." But many of 
these relations, as he justly observes, are obviously fables 
The following facts, however, certainly militate against it. 

A man's first child was of sound mind ; afterward he had 
a fall from his horse, by which his head was much injured. 
His next two children proved to be both idiots. After 
this he was trepanned, and had other children, and they 
turned out to be of sound mind. This case was communi- 
cated to me by a medical practitioner of Douglas, in the Isle 
of Man. 

" In Europe," says a late writer, " the constant practice 
of milking cows has enlarged the udder greatly beyond its 
natural size, and so changed the secretions, that the supply 
does not cease when the calf is removed. In Colombia, 
where circumstances are entirely different, nature shows a 
strong tendency to assume its original type ; a cow gives 
milk there only while the calf is with her.,"* 

2. There are some curious facts which seem to prove 
that acquired habits are hereditary, at least in the inferior 
animals. A strong illustration is quoted in the Edinburgh 
Review, No. lxxxiv. p. 457. 

" Every one conversant with beasts," says the writer, 
" knows, that not only their natural, but many of their ac- 

* Encyclop, B. it., 7th edit. vol. ii. p G53, Article America, 



§8 ORGANIC LAWS. 

quired qualities, are transmitted by the parents to their off- 
spring. Perhaps the most curious example of the latter 
fact may be found in the pointer. 

" This animal is endowed with the natural instinct of 
winding game, and stealing upon his prey, which he sur- 
prises, having first made a short pause, in order to launch 
himself upon it with more security of success. This sort 
of semicolon in his proceedings, man converts into a full 
stop, and teaches him to be as much pleased at seeing the 
bird or beast drop by the shooter's gun, as at taking it 
himself. The staunchest dog of this kind, and the origi- 
nal pointer, is of Spanish origin, and our own is derived 
from this race, crossed with that of the foxhound, or other 
breed dogs, for the sake of improving his speed. This 
mixed and factitious race, of course, naturally partakes less 
of the true pointer character : that is to say, is less disposed 
to stop, or at least he makes a shorter stop at game. The 
factitious pointer is, however, disciplined, in this country, into 
staunchness ; and, what is most singular, this quality is, in 
a great degree, inherited by his puppy, who may be seen 
earnestly standing at swallows or pigeons in a farm-yard. 
For intuition, though it leads the offspring to exercise his 
parent's faculties, does not instruct him how to direct them. 
The preference of his master afterward guides him in his 
selection, and teaches him what game is better worth pursuit. 
On the other hand, the pointer of pure Spanish race, unless 
he happen to be well broke himself, which in the south of 
Europe seldom happens, produces a race which are all but 
unteachable, according to our notions of a pointer's business. 
They will make a stop at their game, as natural instinct 
prompts them, but seem incapable of being drilled into 
the habits of the animal which education has formed in 
this country, and has rendered, as I have said in some 
degree capable of transmitting his acquirements to his 
descendants." 

" Acquired habits are hereditary in other animals besides 
dogs. English sheep, probably from the greater richness 
of our pastures, feed very much together ; while Scotch 
sheep are obliged to extend and scatter themselves over 
their hills, for the better discovery of food. Yet the Eng- 
lish sheep, on being transferred to Scotland, keep their old 
habit of feeding in a mass, though so little adapted to theif 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 153 

new country : so do their descendants ; and the English 
sheep is not thoroughly naturalized into the necessities of 
his place till the third generation. The same thing may be 
observed as to the nature of his food that is observed in his 
mode of seeking it. When turnips were introduced from 
England into Scotland, it was only the third generation 
which heartily adopted this diet, the first having been 
starved into an acquiescence in it." 

The author of the article America, in the Encyclopaedia 
Biitannica (7th edit. vol. ii. p. 653) says, " It is worthy of 
notice, that the amble, the pace to which the domestic horse 
in Spanish America is exclusively trained, becomes in the 
course of some generations hereditary, and is assumed by 
the young ones without teaching. 

3. Impressions on the mind of the mother , especially those 
received through the senses, often produce a palpable effect 
on the offspring. On this subject Dr. Prichard observes, 
" The opinion which formerly prevailed, and which has been 
entertained by some modern writers, among whom is Dr. 
Darwin, that at the period when organization commences in 
the ovum, that is, at or soon after the time of conception, the 
structure of the foetus is capable of undergoing modification 
from impressions on the mind or senses of the parent, does not 
appear altogether so improbable. It is contradicted, at least, 
by no fact in physiology. It is an opinion of very ancient 
prevalence, and may be traced to so remote a period, that its 
rise cannot be attributed to the speculations of philosophers, 
and it is difficult to account for the origin of such a persua 
sion, unless we ascribe it to facts which happened to be ob- 
served."— P. 556. 

The following case fell under my own observation : — W. 
B. shoemaker in Portsburgh, called and showed me his son, 
aged 18, who is in a state of idiocy. He is simple and harm- 
less, but never could do any thing for himself. His father 
said that his wife was in sound mind ; that he has other 
three children all sound ; and that the only account he could 
ever give of the condition of this son was, that he kept a 
public house, and some months before the birth of this boy 
an idiot lad came round with a brewer's drayman and helped 
him to lift the casks off the cart ; that that idiot made a 
strong impression on his wife ; that she complained that she 
could not get his appearance removed from her mind, and 



154 ORGANIC LAWS. 

that she kept out of the way when he came to the house 
afterward ; and that his son was weak in body from birth, 
and silly in mind, and had the slouched and slovenly appear- 
ance of the idiot. 

* It is peculiarly lamentable to observe," says Dr. Mason 
Good, in reference to deafness and dumbness, " That when 
the defect has once made an entrance into a family, whether 
from the influence it produces on the nervous system of the 
mother, or from any other less obvious cause, it is peculiar- 
ly apt to become common to those children which are born 
afterward ; insomuch that we often meet with a third, or a_ 
half, and in a few instances, where the first-born has been 
thus aifected, with every individual of the progeny, suffering 
from the same distressing evil. ' The late investigation in 
Ireland discovered families in which there were two, three, 
four, or more, thus circumstanced. In one family there were 
nve children all deaf and dumb, in another seven, in another 
ten ; and in that of a poor militia officer on half-pay, there 
were nine born deaf and dumb in succession.' — (Quart. Jour, 
of Foreign Med., vol. i. p. 321). Yet it is consoling to reflect, 
that the instances are very rare indeed, in which the same 
defect has been propagated to a succeeding generation, when 
the deaf dumb have married, and even when both the hus- 
band and wife have been thus afflicted." * 

The following additional facts are mentioned in the Athe- 
naeum : — ** Many persons who have never known any, or 
perhaps not more than one, deaf and dumb individual in the 
immediate circle in which they lived, would be astonished 
to read the lists of applications circulated by the committee 
for the asylum in the Kent Road, so ably conducted by Mr. 
Watson, which usually contain nearly a hundred names. 
The most remarkable fact, however, which these lists pre- 
sent, is the number of deaf and dumb children frequently 
found in the same families, evidently in consequence of the 
continued operation of some unknown cause connected with 
the parents. Three, four, and five, deaf and dumb children 
are not uncommonly met with in one family, and in some in- 
stances there have been as many as seven. In the family of 
Martin, a labourer, out of ten children seven were deaf anr 
dumb ; in the family of Kelly, a porter, seven out of eigh 

* Good's Study of Medicine, 2d edit, i, 5QG. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 155 

were deaf and dumb ; and in the family of Aldum, a weav- 
er, six out of twelve were deaf and dumb. The result of a 
Table of twenty families, given in the * Historical Sketch of 
the Asylum,' published by Powell, Dowgate-hill, is ninety 
deaf and dumb out of one hundred and fifty-nine chil- 
dren." * 

A medical friend says, " Several of the children of a cler- 
gyman, in the west of Scotland, have been born blind. I 
know a family of six individuals — four girls and two boys. 
All the girls were born blind, while the boys see perfectly. 
Both parents had good eyesight, so far as I can learn. 
These are curious facts, and not easily explained." Portal 
states, that " Morgagni has seen three sisters dumb * abori- 
gine. ' Other authors also cite examples, and I have seen 
like cases myself." In a note, he adds, " I have seen three 
children out of four of the same family blind form birth by 
amaurosis, or gutta serena." — Portal Memoires sur Plu- 
sieurs Maladies, torn. iii. p. 193. Paris, 1808. 

Dr. Prichard, in his " Researches," already quoted, ob- 
serves, . " Children resemble, in feature and constitution, 
both parents, but, I think, more generally the father. In 
the breeding of horses and oxen, great importance is at- 
tached, by experienced propagators, to the male. In sheep, 
it is commonly observed that black rams beget black lambs. 
In the human species also the complexion chiefly follows 
that of the father ; and 1 believe it to be a general fact, 
that the offspring of a black father and white mother is much 
darker than the progeny of a white father and a dark mother." 
— Vol. ii. p. 551.f These facts appear to me to be refer- 
rible to both causes. The stock must have had some in- 
fluence, but the mother, in all these cases, is not impressed 
by her own colour, because she does not look on herself; 
while the fathers complexion must strikingly attract her 
attention, and may, in this way, give the darker tinge to the 
offspring. X 

4. The idea of the transmission of temporary mental and 
bodily qualities, is supported by numerous facts tending to 
uhow that the state of the parents, particularly of the mo- 

* Athenaeum, 28th May 1825, p. 498. 

t See Appendix, No. VI. 

X Black nens, however, lay dark-coloured eggn. 



156 ORGANIC LAWS. 

ther, at the time when the existence of the child commences, 
has* a strong influence on its talents, dispositions, and 
health. 

The father of Napoleon Buonaparte, says Sir Walter 
Scott, " is stated to have possessed ^i very handsome person, 
a talent for eloquence, and a vivacity of intellect, which lie 
transmitted to his son." "It was in the middle of civil 
discord, fights, and skirmishes, that Charles Buonaparte 
married Lsetitia Ramolini, one of the most beautiful young 
women of the island, and possessed of a great deal of firm- 
ness of character. She partook of the dangers of her hus- 
band during the years of civil war, and is said to have ac- 
companied him on horseback on some military expeditions, 
or perhaps hasty fights, shortly before her being delivered 
of the future Emperor." — Life of Napoleon Buonaparte, vol. 
iii. p. 6. 

The murder of David Rizzio was perpetrated by armed 
nobles, with many circumstances of violence and terror, in 
the presence of Mary, Queen of Scotland, shortly before the 
birth of her son, afterward James the First of England. 
The constitutional liability of this monarch to emotions of 
fear, is recorded as a characteristic of his mind ; and it has 
been mentioned that he even started involuntarily at the 
sight of a drawn sword. Queen Mary was not deficient in 
courage, and the Stuarts, both before and after James the 
First, were distinguished for this quality ; so that his dis- 
positions were an exception to the family character. Na- 
poleon and James form striking contrasts ; and it may be 
remarked that the mind of Napoleon's mother appears to 
have risen to the danger to which she was exposed, and 
braved it ; while the circumstances in which Queen Mary 
was placed, were such as inspired her with fear. 

Esquirol, a celebrated French medical writer, in advert- 
ing to the causes of madness, mentions that many children, 
whose existence dated from periods w T hen the horrors of 
the French Revolution were at their height, turned out 
subsequently to be weak, nervous, and irritable in mind, 
extremely susceptible of impressions, and liable to be 
thrown, by the least extraordinary excitement, into abso- 
lute insanity. 

A lady of considerable talent wrote as follows to a phre- 
nological friend : — " From the age cf two I foresaw that my 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. l57 

eldest son's restlessness would ruin him ; and it has been 
even so. Yet he was kind, brave, and affectionate. I 
read the Iliad for six months before he saw the light, and 
have often wondered if that could have any influence on 
him. He was actually an Achilles.* 

The following particulars have been communicated to me 
by the medical friend already alluded to. " I know an old 
gentleman," says he, " who has been twice married. The 
children of his first marriage are strong, active, healthy peo- 
ple, and their children are the same. The produce of his 
second marriage are very inferior, especially in an intel- 
lectual point of view ; and the younger the children are, the 
more is this obvious. The girls are superior to the boys, 
both physically and intellectually ; indeed, their mother 
told me that she had great difficulty in rearing her sons, but 
none with her daughters. The gentleman himself, at the 
time of his second marriage, was upwards of sixty, and his 
wife about twenty-five. This shows very clearly that the 
boys have taken chiefly of the father, and the daughters of 
the mother." 

In a case which fell under my own observation, the father 
of a family became sick, had a partial recovery, but relapsed, 
declined in health, and in two months died. Seven months 
after his death, a son was born, of the full age, and the 
origin of whose existence was referrible to the period of the 
partial recovery. At that time, and during the subsequent 
two months, the faculties of the mother were highly excited, 
in ministering to her husband, to whom she was greatly 
attached ; and, after his death, the same excitement con- 
tinued, as she was then loaded with the charge of a nume- 
rous family, but not depressed ; for her circumstances were 
comfortable. The son is now a young man ; and, while his 
constitution is the most delicate, the development and ac- 
tivity of the mental organs are decidedly greater in him than 
in any other member of the family. 

A lady possessing a large brain and active temperament, 
was employed professionally as a teacher of music. Her 
husband also had a fine temperament, and a well constituted 

* This lady 1 3 head is large ; in particular, the organs of Comba- 
tiveness, Self-Esteem, and Firmness, are very large ; those of Des- 
tructiveness and Adhesiveness arc large ; and the temperament is 
Very active, 

14 



158 ORGANIC LAWS. 

brain, but his talents for music were only moderate. They 
had several children, all of whom were produced while the 
mother was in the full practice of her profession, and the 
whole now indicate superior musical abilities. They have 
learned to play on several instruments as if by instinct, and 
highly excel. In this case the original endowments of the 
mother, and her actual exercise of them, conspired to trans- 
mit them to her children. 

A friend told me that in his youth he lived in a county 
in which the gentlemen were much addicted to hard drink- 
ing ; and that he, too frequently, took a part in their revels. 
Several of his sons, born at that time, although subsequently 
educated in a very different moral atmosphere, turned out 
strongly addicted to inebriety ; whereas the children born 
after he had removed to a large town and formed more cor- 
rect habits, were not the victims of this propensity. Another 
individual, of superior talents, described to me the wild and 
mischievous revelry in which he indulged at the time of his 
marriage, and congratulated himself on his subsequent 
domestication and moral improvement. His eldest son, 
born in his riotous days, notwithstanding a strictly moral 
education, turned out a personification of the father's actual 
condition at that time ; and his younger children were more 
moral in proportion as they were removed from the period 
of vicious frolics. The mother, in this case, possessed a 
favourable development of brain. 

The Margravine of Anspach observes, that "when a 
female is likely to become a mother, she ought to be doubly 
careful of her temper; and, in particular, to indulge no 
ideas that are not cheerful, and no sentiments that are not 
kind. Such is the connexion between the mind and body, 
that the features of the face are moulded commonly into an 
expression of the internal disposition ; and is it not natural 
to think that an infant, before it is born, may be affected by 
the temper of its mother 1" — Memoirs, vol. ii. chap, viii.* 

When two parties marry very young, the eldest of their 
children generally inherits a less favourable development of 
the moral and intellectual organs, than those produced in 
more mature age. The animal organs in the human race 
are, in general, most vigorous in early life, and this energy 

* See Appendix, No. VII. 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 159 

appears to cause them to be then most readily transmitted 
to offspring. Indeed, it is difficult to account for the wide 
varieties in the form of the brain in children of the same 
family, except on the principle, that the organs which pre- 
dominate in vigour and activity in the parents, at the time 
when existence is communicated, determine the tendency 
of corresponding organs to develope themselves largely in 
the children. The facts illustrative of the truth of this 
principle, which have been communicated to me and ob- 
served by himself, are so numerous, that I now regard it as 
extremely probable. 

If this be really the law of nature — as there is so great 
reason for believing it is — then parents, in whom Combative- 
ness and Destructiveness are habitually active, will transmit 
these organs, in a state of high development and excitement, 
to their children ; while parents in whom the moral and in- 
tellectual organs exist in supreme vigour, will transmit these 
in greatest perfection. 

This view is in harmony with the fact, that children gen- 
erally, although not universally, resemble their parents in 
their mental qualities ; because, the largest organs being 
naturally the most active, the general and habitual state of 
the parents will be determined by those which predominate 
in size in their own brains ; and, on the principle that pre- 
dominance in activity and energy causes the transmission of 
similar qualities to the offspring, the children will in this 
way very generally resemble the parents. But they will 
not always do so ; because even very inferior characters, in 
whom the moral and intellectual organs are deficient, may 
be occasionally exposed to external influences which, for 
the time, may excite, these organs to unwonted vivacity ; 
and, according to the rule now explained, a child dating its 
existence from that period may inherit a brain superior to 
that of the parent. On the other hand, a person with an 
excellent moral development, may, by some particular occur- 
rence, have his animal propensities roused to unwonted 
vigour, and his moral sentiments thrown for a time into the 
shade; and any offspring connected with this condition, 
would prove inferior to himself in the development of the 
moral organs, and greatly surpass him in the size of those 
of the propensities. 

I repeat, that I do not present these views as ascertained 



160 ORGANIC LAWS. 

phrenological science, but as inferences strongly supported 
by facts and consistent with known phenomena. If we 
suppose them to be true, they will greatly strengthen the mo- 
tives for preserving the habitual supremacy of the moral 
sentiments and intellect ; since, by our doing so, improved 
moral and intellectual capacities may be confered on offspring. 
If it be true that this lower world is arranged in harmony 
with the supremacy of the higher faculties, what a noble 
prospect would this law open up, of the possibility of man 
ultimately becoming capable of placing himself more fully in 
accordance with the Divine institutions than he has hitherto 
been able to do, and, in consequence, of reaping numberless 
enjoyments that appear destined for him by his Creator, and 
avoiding thousands of miseries that now render life too 
often only a series of calamities ! The views here expound- 
ed also harmonize with the principle maintained in a former 
part of this work. That, as activity in the faculties is the 
fountain of enjoyment, the whole constitution of nature 
is designedly framed to support them in ceaseless action. 
What scope for observation, reflection, exercise of the moral 
sentiments, and the regulation of animal impulse, does not 
this picture of nature present ! 

I cordially agree, however, with Dr. Prichard, that this 
subject is still involved in great obscurity. " We know not," 
says he, " by what means any of the facts we remark are 
effected ; and the utmost we can hope to attain is, by tracing 
the connexion of circumstances, to learn from what combi- 
nations of them we may expect to witness particular results," 
— Vol. ii. p. 512. But much of this darkness may be tra- 
ced to ignorance of the functions of the brain. If we con- 
sider that, in relation to mind, the brain has always been the 
most important organ of our system ; that the mental con- 
dition of their parents must almost necessarily have exercis- 
ed a powerful influence over the development of the cerebral 
organs in their children ; that the relative size of the organs 
determines the predominance of particular talents and dis- 
positions ; but that, nevertheless, all past observations have 
been conducted without the knowledge of these facts ; it 
will not appear marvellous, that hitherto much confusion and 
contradiction have existed in the cases recorded, and in the 
inferences drawn from them on this subject. At the present 
moment, almost all that phrenologists can pretend to accora- 



Hereditary transmission of qualities. 161 

plish is, to point out the mighty void ; to offer on exposi- 
tion of its causes, and to state such conclusions as their own 
very limited observations have hitherto enabled them to de- 
duce. Far from pretending to be in possession of certain 
and complete knowledge on this topic, I am inclined to think, 
that, although every conjecture now hazarded were founded in 
nature, centuries of observation might probably be necessary 
to render the principles fully practical. At present we have 
almost no information concerning the effects, on the children, 
of different temperaments, different combinations in the 
cerebral organs, and differences of age, in the parents. 

It is astonishing, however, to what extent mere pecu- 
niary interests excite men to investigate and observe the 
Natural Laws, while moral and rational considerations ap- 
pear to exert so small an influence in leading them to do so 
Before a common insurance company will undertake the 
risk of paying £100, on the death of an individual, they 
require the following questions to be answered by credible 
and intelligent witnesses : — 

44 1. How long have you known Mr. A. B. 1 
44 2. Has he had the gout \ 

44 3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthma, consumption, 
or other pulmonary complaint ] 

" 4. Do you consider him at all predisposed to any of 
these complaints ] 

" 5. Has he been afflicted with fits, or mental derange- 
ment] 

" 6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, in the 
common acceptation of the term ] 

44 7. Are his habits in every respect strictly regular and 
temperate 1 

44 8. Is he at present in good health 1 
44 9. Is there any thing in his form, habits of living, or 
business, which you are of opinion may shorten his life ] 
44 10. What complaints are his family most subject to 1 
44 11. Are you aware of any reason why an insurance 
might not with safety be effected on his life \ n 

A man and woman about to marry, have, in the gene- 
rality of cases, the health and happiness of five ot more 
human beings depending on their attention to considera- 
tions essentially the same as the foregoing, and yet how 
14* 



162 ORGANIC LAWS. 

much less scrupulous are they than the mere speculators in 
money ! " Before the parties," says Dr. Caldwell, " form a 
compact fraught with consequences so infinitely weighty, 
let the constitution and education of both be matured. 
They will then not only transmit to their offspring a better 
organization, but be themselves, from the knowledge and 
experience they have attained, better prepared to improve it 
by cultivation. For I shall endeavour to make it appear 
that cultivation can improve it. When a skilful agricul- 
turist wishes to amend his breed of cattle, he does not em- 
ploy, for that purpose, immature animals. On the contrary, 
he carefully prevents their intercourse. Experience more- 
over teaches him not to expect fruit of the best quality 
from immature fruit-trees or vines. The product of such 
crudeness is always defective. In like manner, marriages 
between boarding-school girls and striplings in or just out 
of college, ought to be prohibited. In such cases, prohibi- 
tion is a duty, no less to the parties themselves, than to 
their offspring and society. Marriages of the kind are 
rarely productive of any thing desirable. Mischief and 
unhappiness of some sort are their natural fruit. Patriotism 
therefore, philanthropy, and every feeling of kindness to 
human nature, call for their prevention. Objections resting 
on ground not altogether dissimilar may be justly urged 
against young women marrying men far advanced in years. 
Old men should in no case contract marriages likely to 
prove fruitful. Age has impaired their constitutional quali- 
ties, which descending to their offspring, the practice tends 
to deteriorate our race. It is rare for the descendants of 
men far advanced in years to be distinguished for high 
qualities of either body or mind. 

u As respects persons seriously deformed, or in any way 
constitutionally enfeebled — the rickety and club-footed, for 
instance, and those with distorted spines, or who are pre- 
disposed to insanity, scrofula, pulmonary consumption, gout, 
or epilepsy — all persons of this description should conscien- 
tiously abstain from matrimony. In a special manner, 
where both the male and female labour under a hereditary 
taint, they should make it a part of their duty to God and 
their posterity never to be thus united. Marriage in such 
individuals cannot be defended on moral ground, much lesi 



HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 103 

on that of public usefulness. It is selfish to an extent but 
little short of crime. Its abandonment or prevention would 
tend, in a high degree, to the improvement of mankind."* 

I am indebted for the following particulars to the medical 
gentleman already repeatedly quoted, who was imduced to 
communicate them by a perusal of the second edition of 
the present treatise : — " If your work has no other effect than 
that of turning attention to the laws which regulate marriage 
and propagation, it will have done a vast service, for on no 
point are such grievous errors committed. I often see in 
my own practice the most lamentable consequences result- 
ing from neglect of these laws. There are certain families 
which I attend, where the constitutions of both parents are 
bad, and where, when any thing happens to the children, it is 
almost impossible to cure them. An inflamed gland, a com- 
mon cold, hangs about them for months, and almost defies 
removal. In other families, where the parents are strong 
and healthy, the children are easily cured of almost any com- 
plaint. I know a gentleman aged about 50, the only survivor 
of a family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, 
with the exception of himself, died young of pulmonary 
consumption. He is a little man with a narrow chest, and 
married a lady of a delicate constitution and bad lungs. 
She is a tall spare woman, with a chest still more deficient 
than his own. They have had a large family, all of whom 
die off regularly as they reach manhood and womanhood, in 
consequence of affections of the lungs. In the year 1833, 
two sons and a daughter died within a period of ten months. 
Two still survive, but they are both delicate, and there can 
be no doubt that when they arrive at maturity they will fol- 
low the rest. This is a most striking instance of punish- 
ment under the organic laws." 

It is pleasing to observe, that, in Wurtemberg, there are 
two excellent laws calculated to improve the moral and physi- 
cal condition of the people, which other states would do well 
to adopt. First, " It is illegal for any young man to marry 
before he is twenty-five, or any young woman before she is 
eighteen ; and a young man, at whatever age he wishes to 

* Thoughts on the True Mode of Improving the Condition of Man. 
By Charles Caldwell, M. D. Lexington, Kentucky, 1833, p. 20. 
The greater part of this eloquent and powerful Essay is reprinted in 
the Phrenological Journal, Vol. viii. No. 40. 



164 



ORGANIC LAWS. 



marry, must show to the police and the priest of the corn* 
mime where he resides, that he is able, and has the prospect, 
to provide for a wife and family." The second law compels 
parents to send their children to school, from the age of 
six to fourteen.* 

There is no moral difficulty in admitting and admiring the 
wisdom and benevolence of the institution by which good 
qualities are transmitted from parents to children ; but it is 
frequently held as unjust to the latter, that they should in- 
herit parental deficiencies, and so be made to suffer for sins 
which they did not commit. In treating of this difficulty, I 
must again refer to the supremacy of the moral sentiments, 
as the theory of the constitution of the world. The animal 
propensities are all selfish, and regard only the immediate 
and apparent interest of the individual ; while the higher 
sentiments delight in that which communicates the greatest 
quantity of enjoyment to the greatest number. Now, let us, 
in the first place, suppose the law of hereditary descent to 
be abrogated altogether, — that is to say, the natural qualities 
of each individual of the race to be conferred at birth, with- 
out the slightest reference to what his parents had been or 
done ; — this form of constitution would obviously have cut 
off every possibility of improvement in the race, by any means 
within the control of man. Every phrenologist knows, that 
the brains of the New Hollanders, Caribs, and other sav- 
age tribes, are distin- 
guished by great de- 
ficiencies in the mo- 
ral and intellectual 
organs. f If, how- 
ever, it be true that a 
considerable develop- 
ment of the intellect- 
ual and moral organs 
is indispensable to the 
comprehension of sci- 
ence and the practice j 
of virtue, it would, on * 
the present supposition, be impossible to raise the New Hol- 

* See Appendix, No. VIII. 

t This fact is demonstrated by specimens in most Phrenological 
works. 




HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 165 

landers, as a pooplo, one step higher in capacity for intelli- 
gence and virtue than they now are. We might cultivate 
each generation up to the limits of its powers, but there the 
improvement, and a low one it would be, would stop ; for, the 
next generation being produced with brains equally deficient 
in the moral and intellectual regions, no principle of increas- 
ing amelioration could exist. The same remarks are appli- 
cable to every tribe of mankind. If we assume modern 
Europeans as a standard, — then, if the law of hereditary de- 
scent were abrogated, every deficiency which at this moment 
is attributable to imperfect or disproportionate development 
of brain, would be irremediable by human means, and con- 
tinue as long as the race existed. Each generation might be 
cultivated till the summit-level of its capacities were attained, 
but higher than this no succeeding generation could rise. 
When we contrast with such a prospect the very opposite 
effects flowing from the law of hereditary transmission of 
qualities in an increasing ratio, the whole advantages are at 
once perceived to be on the side of the latter arrangement. 
According to this rule, the children of the individuals who 
have obeyed the organic, the moral and intellectual laws, 
will not only start from the highest level of their parents in 
acquired knowledge, but will inherit an enlarged develop- 
ment of the moral and intellectual organs, and thereby en- 
joy an increasing capability of discovering and obeying the 
institutions of the Creator. 

It appears to me that the native American savages, and 
native New Hollanders, cannot, with their present brains, 
adopt Christianity or civilization. Mr. Timothy Flint, a 
Presbyterian clergyman, who passed ten years, commencing 
in 1815, in wanderings and preaching in the valley of the 
Mississippi, says of the Indians among whom he lived, that 
" they have not the same acute and tender sensibilities 
with the other races of men. They seem callous to every 
passion but rage." . . . . " Their impassible fortitude and en- 
durance of suffering, which have been so much vaunted, are, 
after all, in my mind, the result of a greater degree of phy- 
sical insensibility." u No ordinary stimulus excites them 
to action. None of the common excitements, endearments, 
or motives, operate upon them at all. They seem to hold 
most of the things that move us in proud' disdain. The 
horrors of their warfare, — the infernal rage of their battles, 



166 ORGANIC LAWS. 

— the demoniac fury of gratified revenge, — the alternations 
of hope and despair in their gambling, to which they are 
addicted far beyond the whites, — the brutal exhilaration 
of drunkenness, — these are their excitements." He con- 
cludes, " It strikes me that Christianity is the religion of 
civilized man ; that the savages must first be civilized ; and 
that, as there is little hope that the present generation of 
Indians can be civilized, there is but little more that they 
will be christianized." 

The reader will find, in the phrenological collections, 
specimens of the skulls of these savages ; and, on compar- 
ing them with those of Europeans, he will observe that, in 
the American Indians, the organs of reflecting intellect, 
and of all the moral feelings, are greatly inferior in size to 
the same organs in the Europeans. The moral and intel- 
lectual organs are decidedly larger in the Sandwich Island- 
ers than in these Indians, and they have received European 
civilization with greater cordiality and success. If, by con- 
forming to the organic laws, the moral and intellectual 
organs of the American savages could be considerably en- 
larged, they would desire civilization, and would adopt it 
when offered. If this view be well founded, every method 
used for their cultivation, which is not calculated at the 
same time to improve their cerebral organization, will be 
limited in its effects by the narrow capacities attending 
their present development. In youth, all the organs of the 
body are more susceptible of modification than in advanced 
age ; and hence the effects of education on the young may 
arise from the greater susceptibility of the brain to changes 
at that period than in later life. This improvement will, no 
doubt, have its limits ; but it may probably extend to that 
point at which man will be capable of placing himself in har- 
mony with the natural laws. The effort necessary to main- 
tain himself there, will still provide for the activity of his 
faculties. 

2dly, We may suppose the law of hereditary descent to 
be limited to the transmission of good, and abrogated as to 
the transmission of bad qualities ; and it may be thought that 
such an arrangement would be more benevolent and just. 
There are objections to this view, however, which do not 
occur without reflection to the mind. We see as matter of 
fact, that a vicious and debased parent is actually defective 



TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 167 

in the moral and intellectual organs. Now, if his children 
should take up exactly the same development as himself, 
this would be the transmission of imperfections, which is 
the very thing objected to ; while, if they were to take up a 
development fixed by nature, and not at all referrible to 
that of the parent, this would render the whole race sta- 
tionary in their first condition, without the possibility of 
improvement in their capacities — which also, we have seen, 
would be an evil greatly to be deprecated. But, 

3dly, The bad development might be supposed to trans- 
mit, by hereditary descent, a good development. This, 
however, would set at nought the supremacy of justice and 
benevolence ; it would render the consequences of contempt 
for and violation of the divine laws, and of obedience to 
them, in this particular, precisely alike. The debauchee, 
the cheat, the murderer, and the robber, would, according 
to this view, be able to look upon the prospects of his pos- 
terity, with the same confidence in their welfare and hap- 
piness, as the pious intelligent Christian, who had sought to 
know God, and to obey his institutions during his whole 
life. Certainty no individual in whom the higher senti- 
ments prevail, will for a moment regard this imagined 
change as any improvement on the Creator's arrangements. 
What a host of motives to moral and religious conduct 
would at once he withdrawn, were such a spectacle of di- 
vine government exhibited to the world ! 

4cthly, It may be supposed that human happiness would 
have been more completely secured, by endowing all indi- 
viduals at birth with that degree of development of the moral 
and intellectual organs which would have best fitted them 
for discovering and obeying the Creators laws, and by pre- 
venting all aberrations from this standard ; just as the lower 
animals appear to have received instincts and capacities 
adjusted with the most perfect wisdom to their conditions. 
Two remarks occur on this supposition. First, We are 
not competent at present to judge correctly how far the 
development actually bestowed on the human race is, or is 
not, wisely adapted to their circumstances ; for possibly 
there may be, in the great system of human society, depart- 
ments exactly suited to all existing forms of brain not im- 
perfect through disease, but which our knowledge is 
insufficient to discover. The want of a natural index to 



163 OEGAXIC LAWS. 

the mental dispositions and capacities of individuals, and 
of a true theory of the constitution of society, may have 
hitherto precluded philosophers from arriving at sound con- 
clusions on this question. It appears to me probable, that 
while there may be great room for improvement in the ta- 
lents and dispositions of vast numbers of individuals, the 
imperfections of the race in general may not be so great as 
we, in our present state of ignorance of the aptitudes of 
particular persons for particular situations, are prone to 
infer. But, secondly, On the principle that activity of the 
faculties is the fountain of enjoyment, it may be questioned 
whether additional motives to the exercise of the moral and 
intellectual powers, and consequently greater happiness, 
are not conferred by leaving men (within certain limits) to 
regulate the talents snd tendencies of their descendants, 
than by endowing each individual with the best qualities, 
independently of the conduct of his parents. 

On the whole, therefore, there seems reason for conclud- 
ing that the actual institution, by which both good and bad 
qualities* are transmitted, is fraught with higher advan- 
tages to the race, than the abrogation of the law of trans- 
mission altogether, or than the supposed change of it, by 
which bad men would transmit good qualities to their chil- 
dren. The actual law, when viewed by the moral senti- 
ments and intellect, appears, both in its principles and in its 
consequences, beneficial and expedient. When an indi- 
vidual sufferer, therefore, complains of its operation, he 
regards it through the animal faculties alone ; his self-love 
is annoyed, and he carries his thoughts no farther. He 
never stretches his mind forward to the consequences which 
would ensue to mankind at large, if the law which grieves 
him were reversed. The animal faculties regard nothing 

* In using the popular expressions "good qualities" and " bad 
qualities," I do not mean to insinuate, that any of the tendencies be- 
stowed on man are essentially bad in themselves. Destructiveness 
and Acquisitiveness, for example, are iu themselves essential to 
human welfare in this world, and, when properly directed, produce 
effects unquestionably good ; but they become the sources of evil 
when they are ill directed, which may happen either from moral 
deficiency, from intellectual ignorance, or from their organs t>eing 
too large in proportion to those of the superior sentiments and in- 
tellect. 



TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 169 

beyond their own immediate and apparent interest, antl 
they do not even discern it correctly ; for no arrangement 
that is beneficial for the race would be found injurious. U 
individuals, if its operations in regard to them were dis 
tinctly traced. The abrogation of the rule, therefore, undo 
which they complain, would, we may be certain, bring ten 
thousand times greater evils, even upon themselves, than 
its continuance. 

On the other hand, an individual sufferer under heredi- 
tary pain, in whom the moral and intellectual faculties 
predominate, and who should see the principle and conse- 
quence* of the institution of hereditary descent as now 
explained, would not murmur at them as unjust : he would 
bow with submission to an institution which he perceived 
to be fraught with blessings to the race when it was known 
and observed ; and the very practice of this reverential ac- 
quiescence would be so delightful, that it would diminish, 
in a great degree, the severity of his misfortune. Besides, 
he would see the door of mercy standing widely open, and 
inviting his return ; he would perceive that every step which 
he made in his own person towards exact obedience to the 
Creator's laws, would remove by so much the organic penalty 
transmitted on account of his parent's transgressions, and 
that his posterity would reap the full benefits of his more 
dutiful observance. 

It may be objected to the law of hereditary transmission 
of organic qualities, that the children of a blind and lame 
father have sound eyes and limbs. But, in the first place, 
these defects are generally the result of accident or disease, 
occurring either during pregnancy or posterior to birth, and 
are seldom or never the operation of nature ; and, con- 
sequently, the original physical principles remaining entire 
in the constitution, the bodily imperfections are not trans- 
mitted to the progeny. Secondly, Where the defects aie 
congenital or constitutional, it frequently happens that they 
are transmitted through successive generations. This is 
sometimes exemplified in blindness, and even in the pos- 
session of supernumerary fingers or toes. The reason why 
such peculiarities are not transmitted to all the progeny, ap 
pears to be simply that, in general, only one parent is defec- 
tive. If the father, for instance, be blind or deaf, the mother 
is generally free from that imperfection, and her influence 
15 



170 NEGLECT OP THE ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 

naturally extends to, and modifies the result in, the pro- 
geny. 

If the mental qualities transmitted to offspring be, as 
above explained, dependent on the organs most highly 
excited in the parents, this will account for the varieties, 
along with the general resemblance, that occur in children 
of the same marriage. It will account also for the circum- 
stance of genius being sometimes transmitted and some- 
times not. Unless both parents possessed the cerebral 
development and temperament of genius, the law would not 
certainly transmit these qualities to the children ; and even 
although both did possess these endowments, they* would 
be transmitted only on condition of the parents obeying the 
organic laws — one of which forbids that excessive exertior 
of the mental and corporeal functions which exhausts ana 
debilitates the system ; an error almost universally com- 
mitted by persons endowed with high original talent, under 
the present condition of ignorance of the natural laws, and 
erroneous fashions and institutions of society. The sup- 
posed law would be disproved by cases of weak, imbecile, 
and vicious children, being born to parents whose own con- 
stitution and habits had been in the highest accordance with 
the organic, moral, and intellectual laws ; but no such cases 
have hitherto come under my observation. 

As rules are best taught by examples, I shall now men- 
tion some facts that have fallen under my own notice, or 
been communicated to me from authentic sources, illustra- 
tive of the practical consequences of infringing the law of 
hereditary descent. 

A man, aged about 50, possessed a brain in which the 
animal, moral,. and knowing intellectual organs, were all 
large, but the reflecting small. He was pious, but destitute 
of education ; he married an unhealthy yoong woman, de- 
ficient in moral development, but of .considerable force of 
character ; and several children were born. The father and 
mother were far from being happy ; and when the children 
attained to eighteen or twenty years of age, they were adepts 
in every species of immorality and profligacy : they picked 
their father's pocket, stole his goods, and got them sold 
back to him, by accomplices, for money, which was spent 
in betting, cock-fighting, drinking, and low debauchery. 
The father was heavily grieved ; but knowing only two re- 



NEGLECT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 171 

sources, he beat the children severely as long as he was able, 
and prayed for them : his own words were, that " if, after 
thai, it pleased the Lord to make vessels of wrath of thern, 
the Lord's will must just be done." I mention this last 
obcejvation, not in jest, but in great seriousness. It was 
impossible not to pity the unhappy father : yet, who 
that sees the institutions of the Creator to be in themselves 
wise, but in this instance to have been directly violated, will 
not acknowledge that the bitter pangs of the poor old man 
were the consequences of his own ignorance ; and that it 
was an erroneous view of the divine administration which 
led him to overlook his own mistakes, and to attribute to the 
Almighty the purpose of making vessels of wrath of his 
children, as the only explanation which he could give of their- 
wicked dispositions 1 Who that sees the cause of his misery 
can fail to lament that his piety was not enlightened by 
philosophy, and directed to obedience, in the first instance, 
to the organic laws of the Creator, as one of the prescribed 
conditions, without observance of which he had no title to 
expect a blessing upon his offspring 1 

In another instance, a man, in whom the animal organs, 
particularly those of Combativeness and Destructiveness, 
were very large, but who had a pretty fair moral and intellec 
tuai development, married, against her inclination, a young 
woman, fashionably and showily educated, but with a very 
decided deficiency of Conscientiousness. They soon be- 
came unhappy, and even blows were said to have passed be- 
tween them, although they belonged to the middle rank of 
life. The mother employed the children to deceive and 
plunder the father, and latterly spent the pilfered sums in 
purchasing ardent spirits. The sons inherited the deficient 
morality of the mother, and the ill temper of the father. 
The family fireside became a theatre of war, and, before the 
sons attained majority, the father was glad to get them re- 
moved from his house, as the only means by which he could 
feel even his life in safety from their violence ; for they had 
by that time retaliated the blows with which he had visited 
them in their younger years, and he stated that he actually 
considered his life to be in danger from his own offspring. 

In another family, the mother possesses an excellent de- 
velopment of the moral and intellectual organs, while in the 
lather the animal organs predominate in great excess. She 



.72 NEGLECT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 

has been the unhappy victim of ceaseless misfortune, origin- 
ating from the misconduct of her husband. Some of the 
children have inherited the father's brain, and some the mo- 
ther's ; and of the sons whose heads resembled that of the 
father, several have died through mere debauchery and profli- 
gacy under thirty years of age ; whereas those who resem- 
ble the mother are alive, and little contaminated even amid 
all the disadvantages of evil example. 

On the other hand, I am not acquainted with a single in- 
stance in which the moral and intellectual organs predomi- 
nated in both father and mother, and where external circum- 
stances permitted their general activity, in which the whole 
children did not partake of a moral and intellectual character, 
differing slightly in degrees of excellence one from another, 
but all presenting the decided predominance of the human 
over the animal faculties. 

There are well-known examples of the children of reli- 
gious and moral fathers exhibiting dispositions of a very in- 
ferior description ; but in all the instances of this sort that I 
have been able to observe, there has been in one parent a large 
development of the animal organs, which was controlled, but 
not much more, by the moral and intellectual powers ; 
while, in the other parent, the moral organs did not appear 
to be in large proportion. The unfortunate child inherited 
the large animal development of the one, with the defective 
moral development of the other ; and, in this way, was in- 
ferior to both. The way to satisfy one's self on this point, 
is to examine the heads of the parents. In all such cases, a 
large base of the brain, which is the region of the animal 
propensities, will very probably be found in one or other of 
them. 

Another organic law of the animal kingdom deserves at- 
tention, viz. that by which marriages between blood relations 
tend decidedly to the deterioration of the physical and men- 
tal qualities of the offspring. In Spain, kings marry their 
nieces, and in this country first and second cousins marry 
without scruple ; although every philosophical physiologist 



NEGLECT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS IN MAKRIAGk. 



173 




will declare that this is in 
direct opposition to the in- 
stitutions of nature. The 
42d Number of the Phre- 
nological Journal contains 
an account of an idiot, in 
Manchester, whose pa- 
rents are cousins, and one 
of whose sisters is likewise 
idiotic. His head is ex- 
tremely small, particularly 
in the upper part of the 
forehead. A representa- 
tion of it is annexed. 
This law holds also in the vegetable kingdom. " A provi- 
sion of a very simple kind, is, in some cases, made to prevent 
the male and female blossoms of the same plant from breed- 
ing together, this being found to hurt the breed of vegeta- 
bles, just as breeding in and in does the breed of animals. 
It is contrived that the dust shall be shed by the male blos- 
som before the female is ready to be affected by it, so that the 
impregnation must be performed by the dust of some other 
plant, and in this way the breed be crossed." Objects, fyc. of 
Science, p. 33. On a similar principle, it is found highly 
advantageous in agriculture not to sow grain of the same 
stock in constant succession on the same soil. 

In individual instances, if the soil and plants are both 
possessed of great vigour and the highest qualities, the same 
kind of grain may be reaped in succession twice or thrice, 
with less perceptible deterioration than where these ele- 
ments of reproduction are feeble and imperfect ; and the 
same fact occurs in the animal kingdom. If the first indi- 
viduals connected in near relationship, who united in mar- 
riage, are uncommonly robust, and possess very favourably 
developed brains, their offspring may not be so much deteriorat- 
ed below the common standard of the country as to attract 
particular attention, and the law of nature is, in this instance, 
supposed not to hold ; but it does hold, for to a law of na- 
ture there never is an exception. The offspring are uniform- 
ly inferior to what they would have been, if the parents bad 
united with strangers in blood of equal vigour and ccrebrcU 
d&r/iopmcnt. Wherever there is any remarkable deficiency ia 
IS* 



174 ORGANIC LAWS. 

parents who are related in blood, those appear in the most 
marked and aggravated forms in the offspring. This fact is 
so well known, and so easily ascertained, that I forbear to 
enlarge upon it. — So much for miseries arising from neglect 
of the organic laws in forming the domestic compact. 

I proceed to advert to those evils which arise from overlook- 
ing the operation of the same laws in the ordinary relations 
of society. 

How many little annoyances arise from the misconduct of 
servants and dependants in various departments of life ; how 
many losses, and sometimes ruin, arise from dishonesty and 
knavery in confidential clerks, partners, and agents ! A mer- 
cantile house of great reputation, in London, was ruined and 
became bankrupt, by a clerk having embezzled a prodigious 
extent of funds, and absconded to Ameria ; another company 
in Edinburgh sustained a great loss by a similar piece of dis- 
honesty ; a company in Paisley was ruined by one of the 
partners having collected the funds, and eloped with them to 
the United States ; and several bankers, and other persons, 
suffered severely in Edinburgh, by the conduct of an indivi- 
dual some time connected with the public press. It is said 
that depredations are constantly committed in the post-offices 
of the United Kingdom, in spite of every effort made to select 
persons of the beet character, and of the strictest vigilance 
exercised over their conduct. If it be true that the talents 
and dispositions of individuals are indicated and influenced by 
the development of their brains, and that their actual conduct 
is the result of this development and of their external circum- 
stances, including in the latter every moral and intellectual 
influence coming from without, it is obvious that one and all 
of the evils here enumerated might, to a great extent, be ob- 
viated by the application of Phrenology. These misfortunes 
can be traced to the error of having placed human beings, 
decidedly deficient in moral or intellectual qualities, in situa- 
tions which demanded these in a higher degree than they 
possessed them ; and any certain means by which the pre- 
sence or absence of these qualities could be predicated, before 
their appointment, would go far to prevent the occurrence of 
the evils. The two following figures, for example, represent 
several of the organs most important in practical conduct in 
opposite states of development, and the dispositions of the 
individuals exactly corresponded with them. 



CHOICE OF SERVANTS, &C 



175 




15. Firmness small; 16. Oonscien- 



Mrs H. was a lady re- 
markable for Conscientious- 
ness, but unsteady of pur- 
pose. It was necessary for 
her to have a friend, whose 
i 12 advice she constantly asked 
and followed, in order to 
preserve herself from yield- 
ing to every internal impulse 
or outward solicitation. 

David Haggart was a dex 
terous and enterprising thief 
and pickpocket, who was 
executed at last for murder- 
ing the jailer of Dumfries, 



». r ii uiiiei-a anion « t«. wwucuicij— .--. .- r 

iiousness large; 12. Cautiousness J*M* a view to ^^V from 



fulL 



D. Haggart. 
15 




Hi. Firmness large; 16. Con- 
scientiousness deficient ; 12. 
Cautiousness rather large. 



justice. 

if individuals having 
drains resembling that of 
Haggart, who was remarka- 
ble for dishonest}^, should 
be placed in situations of 
trust, ill which there should 
be presented to them temp- 
tations to deception and 
embezzlement which could 
he resisted only by strong 
sentiments of justice, their 
misconduct, sooner or later, 
would be almost certain, 
*ewing to the great size of 
their animal organs, and the 
'deficiency of their organs of 
"Conscientiousness. I have 
«een so many instances of 
dishonest practices in con- 
comitance with similar com- 
binations, that I cannot 
doubt of their connexion. 
Where external circumstan- 
ces remove from persons thus 
constituted all temptation to 



176 



ORGANIC LAWS. 



pilfering, their deficient perceptions of justice will still be 
discernible in the laxness of their notions of morality, in 
their treatment of inferiors, and in their general conduct. 

Again, if a person were wanted for any situation in which 
great decision of character, steadiness, and perseverance 
were necessary, and we selected a candidate whose brain, 
at the organ of Firmness, resembled that of Mrs H., we 
should assuredly be disappointed. This lady, as already 
mentioned, was remarkable for vacillation of purpose ; and 
I have never seen a single instance of decision of character 
combined with such a defect of brain as is here represented. 
These cases are introduced merely as examples and illustra- 
tions. The reader who wishes to pursue the subject far- 
ther, is referred to the common treatises on Phrenology and 
the Phrenological Journal for additional information. 

If any man were to go to sea in a boat of pasteboard, 
which the very fluidity of the element would dissolve, no 
one would be surprised at his being drowned ; and, in like 
manner, if the Creator has constituted the brain so as to 
exert a great influence over the mental dispositions, and if, 
nevertheless, men are pleased to treat this fact with neglect 
and contempt, and to place individuals, naturally deficient 
in the moral organs, in situations where great morality is re- 
quired, they have no cause to be surprised if they suffer the 
penalties of their own misconduct, in being plundered and 
defrauded. 

Although I can state, from experience, that it is possible, 
by the aid of Phrenology, to select individuals whose moral 
qualities may be relied on, yet the extremely limited extent 
of our practical knowledge in regard to the intellectual 
talents that fit persons for particular duties, must be con- 
fessed. To be able to judge accurately what combination 
of natural talents and dispositions in an individual will best 
fit him for any given employment, we must have seen a 
variety of combinations tried in particular departments, and 
observed their effects. It is impossible, at least for me, to 
anticipate with certainty, in new cases, what these effects 
will be ^ but I have ever found nature constant ; and after 
once discovering, by experience, an assortment of qualities 
suited to a particular duty, I have found no subsequent ex- 
ception to the rule. Cases in which the predominance of 
particular regions of the brain, such as the moral and intej- 



DEATH. 177 

lectual, is very decided, present fewest difficulties ; although, 
even in them, the very deficiency of animal organs may 
sometimes incapacitate an individual for important stations. 
Where the three classes of organs, the animal, moral, and 
intellectual, are nearly in aquilibrie, the most opposite re- 
sults may ensue by external circumstances exciting the one 
or the other to decided predominance in activity, and little 
reliance ought to be placed on individuals thus constituted, 
except when temptations are removed, and strong motives 
t© virtue presented. 

Having now adverted to calamities from external violence, 
— to bad health, — to unhappiness in the domestic circle, 
arising from ill-advised unions and viciously disposed chil- 
dren, — and to the evils suffered from placing individuals, 
as servants, clerks, partners, or public instructers, in situa- 
tions for which they are not suited by their natural qua 
lilies, — and traced all of them to infringements or neglect 
of the physical or organic laws, I proceed to advert to 
the last, and what is reckoned the greatest, of all calami- 
ties, death, which itself is obviously a part of the organic 
law. 

In the introduction, page 4, to which I refer, I have 
stated briefly the changes whieh occurred in the globe be- 
fore man was introduced to inhabit it. The researches of 
geologists have shown that the world we inhabit was at 
first in a fluid condition ; that crystalline rocks were de- 
posited before animal or vegetable life began ; that then 
came the lov/est orders of zoophytes and of vegetables ; 
next fishes and reptiles, — and trees in vast forests, giving 
origin to our present beds of coal ; then quadrupeds and 
birds, and shells and plants, resertibling those of the present 
era, but all of which, as species, have utterly perished from 
the earth : that next eame alluvial rocks, containing bones 
of mammoths and other gigantic animals ; and that last of 
ah came man. Dr. Buekland has shown that certain long, 
rounded, stony bodies, like oblong pebbles or kidney pota- 
toes, scattered on the shore at Lyme Regis, and frequently 
iying beside the bones of the saurian or lizard-like reptiles 
there discovered, are the dung of these animals in a fossil 
state. Many specimens of them contain scales, teeth, and 
bones of fishes, that seem to have passed undigested through 



178 ORGANIC LAWS. 

the ljody of the animal ; just as the enamel of the teeth and 
fragments of bone are found undigested in the dung of 
the ravenous hyena. Similar fossils (scientifically named 
coprolites) are found on the shore of the Firth of Forth, 
about a mile westward from Newhaven. These facts show 
that death, or destruction of vegetable and animal life, was 
an institution of nature before man became an inhabitant 
of the globe. 

Physiologists in general regard the organic frame of man 
also as containing within itself the seeds of dissolution. 
"The last character," says a popular author, "by which 
the living body is distinguished, is that of terminating its 
existence by the process of death. The vital energies, by 
which the circle of actions and reactions necessary to life 
is sustained, at length decline, and finally become exhausted. 
Igorganic bodies preserve their existence unalterably and 
for ever, unless some mechanical force, or some chymical 
agent, separate their particles or alter their composition. 
But, in every living body, its vital motions inevitably cease, 
sooner or later, from the operation of causes that are internal 
and inherent. Thus, to terminate its existence by death, 
is as distinctive of a living being as to derive its origin from 
a pre-existing germ."* 

It is beyond the compass of philosophy to explain why 
the world was constituted in the manner here represented 
I therefore make no inquiry why death was instituted, and 
refer, of course, only to the dissolution of organized bodies, 
and not at all to the state of the soul or mind after its se- 
paration from the body. This belongs to Revelation. 

Let us first view the dissolution of the body abstractedly 
from personal considerations, as a mere natural arrangement. 
Death, then, appears to be a result of the constitution of all 
organized beings ; for the very definition of the genus is, 
that the individuals grow, attain maturity, decay, and die. 
The human imagination cannot conceive how the formei 
part of this series of movements could exist without the 
latter, as long as space is necessary to corporeal existence. 
If all the vegetable and animal productions of nature, from 
creation downwards, had grown, attained maturity, and 
there remained, the world would not have been capable of 

* Animal Physiology, p. 7 ; Library of Useful Knowledge, 



DEATH. 179 

Containing the thousandth part of them ; so that, on this 
earth, decaying and dying appear indispensably necessary 
to admit of reproduction and growth. Viewed abstractedly, 
then^ organized beings live as long as health and vigour 
continue ; but they are subjected to a process of decay, which 
impairs gradually all their functions, and at last terminates 
in their dissolution. Now, in the vegetable world, the 
effect of this law is, to surround us with young trees, in 
place of everlasting stately full grown forests, standing 
forth in awful majesty, without variation in leaf or bough ; 
— with the vernal bloom of spring, changing gracefully into 
the vigour of summer and the maturity of autumn ; — with 
the rose, first simply and delicately budding, then luxuriant 
and lovely in its perfect evolution. In short, when wo 
advert to the law of death, as instituted in the vegetable 
kingdom, and as related to our own faculties of Ideality and 
Wonder, which desire and delight in the changes which 
death introduces, we without hesitation exclaim, that all is 
wisely and wonderfully made. Turning again to the ani- 
mal kingdom, we discover that the same fundamental prin- 
ciple prevails. Death removes the old and decayed, and 
the organic law introduces in their place the young, the gay, 
and the vigorous, to tread the stage with renewed agility 
and delight. 

This transfer of existence may readily be granted to be 
beneficial to the young ; but, at first sight, it appears the 
opposite of benevolent to the old. To have lived at all, is 
felt as giving a right to continue to live ; and the question 
arises, How can the institution of death, as the result of the 
organic law, be reconciled with benevolence and justice ] 

I am aware that, theologically, death is regarded as the 
punishment of sin, and that the attempt to reconcile our 
minds to it by reason is objected to as at once futile and dan- 
gerous. But I beg leave to observe, that philosophers have 
established by irrefragable evidence, that before man was 
created, death prevailed among the lower animals, not only 
by natural decay and the operation of physical forces, but by 
the express institution of carnivorous creatures destined to 
prey on living beings ; that man himself is carnivorous, and 
obviously framed by the Creator for a scene of death ; that 
his organic constitution, in its inherent qualities, implies 
death as its final termination ; and that if these facts be ad- 



I&O ORGANIC LAWS. 

mitted to be undeniable on the one hand, and we are prohibit* 
ed, on the other, from attempting to discover, from the re- 
cords of creation itself, the wise adaptation of the human feel- 
ings and intellectual to this state of things, neither the cause 
of revelation nor that of reason can be thereby benefited. 
The foregoing facts cannot be disputed or concealed ; and 
the only effect of excluding the investigation on which I pro- 
pose to enter, would be to close the path of reason, and to 
leave the constitution of the external world and of the human 
mind apparently in a state of contradiction to each other. 
Let us rather trust to the inherent consistency of all truths* 
and rely on all sound conclusions of reason being in accord- 
ance with every correct interpretation of Scripture. 

In treating of the supremacy of the moral sentiments, I 
pointed out, that the grand distinction between those senti- 
ments and the propensities consists in this — that the former 
are in their nature disinterested, generous^ and fond of the 
general good, while the latter aim only at the welfare or grati- 
fication of the individual. It is obvious that death, as an 
institution of the Creator, must affect these two classes of 
faculties in the most different manner. A being endowed 
only with propensities and intellect, and enabled, by the lat- 
ter, to discover death and its consequences, would probably 
regard it as an appalling visitation. It would see in it only 
the utter extinction of enjoyment to itself; for, although it 
perceived existence transferred to other beings, who would 
enjoy life after its removal from the scene, this would afford 
it no consolation, in consequence of its wanting all the facul- 
ties which derive pleasure from disinterestedly contemplat- 
ing the enjoyments of other creatures. The lower animals, 
then, whose whole being is composed of the inferior propen- 
sities and several knowing faculties, would probably see 
death, if they could at all anticipate it, in this light. It 
would appear to then as the extinguisher of every pleasure 
which they had ever felt ; and apparently the bare prospect 
of it would render their lives so wretched, that nothing could 
alleviate the depressing gloom with which the habitual con- 
sciousness of it would inspire them. But, by depriving them 
of reflective faculties, the Creator has kindly and effectually 
withdrawn from them this evil. He has thereby rendered 
them completely blind to its existence. There is not the 
least reason to believe, that any one of the lower animals, 



DEATH. 181 

while in health and vigour, has the slightest conception that 
it is a moral creature, any more than a tree has that will die. 
In consequence, it lives in as full enjoyment of the present, 
as if it were assured of every agreeable sensation being eter- 
nal. Death always takes the individual by surprise, whether 
it comes in the form of violence suppressing life in youth, 
or of slow decay by age ; and really operates as a transfer- 
ence of existence from one being to another, without con- 
sciousness of the loss in the one which dies. Let us, how- 
ever, trace the operation of death, in regard to the lower 
animals, a little more in detail. 

Philosophy, as already remarked, cannot explain why 
death was instituted at first ; but, according to the views 
maintained in this work, we should expect to find it connect- 
ed with, and regulated by, benevolence and justice — that is 
to say, that it should not be inflicted for the sole purpose of 
extinguishing the life of individnals, to their damage, with- 
out any other result ; but that the general system under 
which it takes place should be, on the whole, favourable to 
the enjoyment not only of the race, but of each individual ani- 
mal while life is given. And this accordingly is the fact. 
Violent death, and the devouring of one animal by another, 
are not purely benevolent ; because pure benevolence would 
never inflict pain : but they are instances of destruction lead- 
ing to beneficial results ; that is, wherever death is introduced 
under the institutions of nature, it is accompanied with en- 
joyment or beneficial consequences to the very animals which 
are to become the subjects of it. While the world is calcu- 
lated to support only a limited number of living creatures, 
the lower animals have received from nature powers of re- 
production far beyond what are necessary to supply the 
waste of natural decay, and they do not possess intellect 
sufficient to restrain their numbers within the limits of their 
means of subsistence. Herbivorous animals, in particular, 
are exceedingly prolific, and yet the supply of vegetable food 
is limited. Hence, after multiplication for a few years, exten- 
sive starvation, the most painful and lingering of all deaths, 
and the most detrimental to the race, would inevitably en- 
sue : but carnivorous animals have been instituted, who kill 
and eat them ; and, by this means, not only do carnivorous 
animals reap the pleasures of life, but the numbers of the 
herbivorous are restrained within such limits that the indi- 
10 



182 ORGANIC LAWS. 

viduals among them enjoy existence while they live.* Thtf 
destroyers, again, are limited in their turn : the moment they 
become too numerous, and carry their devastations too far, 
their food fails them, and they die of starvation, or, in theii 
conflicts for the supplies that remain, destroy one another, 
Nature seems averse from inflicting death extensively by 
starvation, probably because it impairs the constitution long 
ht fore it extinguishes life, and has the tendency to produce 
degeneracy in the race. It may be remarked also, speculative- 
ly, that herbivorous animals must have existed in consider- 
able numbers before the carnivorous began to exercise their 
functions ; for many of the former must die, that one of the 
latter may live. If a single sheep and a single tiger had 
been placed together at first, the tiger would have eaten up 
the sheep at a few meals, and afterward died itself of 
starvation. 

There is reason to believe, that, in the state of nature, 
death is attended with very little suffering to the lower crea- 
tures. In natural decay, the organs are worn out by mere 
age, and the animal sinks into gradual insensibility, uncon 
scious that dissolution awaits it. Farther, the wolf, the tiger, 
the lion, and other beasts of prey instituted by the Creator 
as instruments of violent death, are provided, in addition 
to Destructiveness, with large organs of Cautiousness and 
Secretiveness, which prompt them to steal upon their victims 
with the unexpected suddenness of a mandate of annihila^ 
tion ; and they are also impelled to inflict death in the most 
instantaneous and least painful method. The tiger and lion 
spring from their covers with the rapidity of the thunderbolt, 
and one blow of their tremendous paws, inflicted at the junc- 
tion of the head with the neck, produces instantaneous death. 

* St. Pierre states this argument forcibly. — " By their production 
without restraint," says he, " creatures would be multiplied beyond 
all limits, till even the globe itself could not contain them. The 

S reservation of every individual produced, would lead to ultimata 
estruction of the species. Some will answer, that the animals might 
live always, if they observed a proportion suitable to the territory 
which they inhabited. But, according to this supposition, they must 
at last cease to multiply ; and then adieu to the loves and alliances, 
the building of nests, and all the harmonies which reign in their na- 
tore,^ — Etude de la Nature, Paris, 1791, p. 17. 



©EATH. 183 

The eagle is taught to strike its sharp beak into the spine of 
the birds which it devours, and their agony endures scarcely 
for an instant. It has been objected that the cat plays with 
the unhappy mouse, and prolongs its tortures : but the cat 
that does so, is the pampered and well-fed inhabitant of a 
kitchen ; the cat of nature is too eager to devour, to indulge 
in such luxuries graifications of Destructiveness and Secre- 
tiveness., It kills in a moment, and eats. Here, then, is 
actually a regularly organized process for withdrawing indi- 
viduals among the lower animals from existence, almost by a 
fiat of destruction, and thereby providing for the comfortable 
subsistence of the creatures themselves while they live, and 
making way for a succession of new occupants. " Nature," 
says St. Pierre, " does nothing in vain : she intends few 
animals to die of old age ; and I believe that she has permitted 
to none except man to run the entire course of life, becaus e 
in his case alone can old age be useful to the race. What 
would be the advantage of old animals, incapable of reflection, 
to a posterity born with instincts holding the place of expe- 
rience ; and how, on the other hand, would decrepid parents 
find support among offspring which instinctively leave them 
whenever they are able to swim, to fly, or to run 1 Old age 
would prove to such creatures a burden ; of which beasts of 
prey mercifully deliver them." 

Man, in his mode of putting the lower creatures to death, 
is not so tender as beasts of prey : but he might be so. 
Suppose the sheep to be guillotined, and not maltreated 
before its execution, the creature would never know that it 
had ceased to live. And, by the law which I have already 
explained, man does not with impunity add one unnecessary 
pang to the death of the inferior animals. In the butcher 
who inflicts torments on calves, sheep, and cattle, while 
driving them to the slaughter, — and who kills them in the 
way supposed to be most conducive to the gratification of his 
Acquisitiveness, such as bleeding them to death, by successive 
stages, prolonged for days to whiten their flesh, — the animal 
faculties of Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self- 
Esteem, predominate so decidedly in activity over the moral 
powers, that he is necessarily excluded from all the enjoy- 
ments attendant on the supremacy of the human faculties : 
He, besides, goes into society under the influence of the same 



184 ORGANIC LAWS. 

base combination, and suffers at every hand animal retalia* 
tion ; so that he does not escape with impunity for his out- 
rages against the moral law. 

Here, then, we can perceive nothing malevolent in the 
institution of death, in so far as regards the lower animals. 
A pang certainly does attend it ; but while Destructiveness 
must be recognised in the pain, Benevolence is equally per- 
ceptible in its effects. 

To repair injuries sustained by objects governed exclu- 
sively by physical laws, no remedial process is instituted by 
nature. If a mirror falls, and is smashed, it remains ever 
after in fragments ; if a ship sinks, it lies still at the bottom 
of the ocean, chained down by the law of gravitation. Under 
the organic law, on the other hand, a distinct remedial process 
is established. If a tree is blown over, every root that re- 
mains in the ground will double its exertions to preserve 
life ; if a branch is lopped off, new branches will shoot out in 
its place ; if a leg in an animal is broken, the bone will re- 
unite ; if a muscle is severed, it will grow together ; if an 
artery is obliterated, the neighbouring arteries will enlarge 
their dimensions, and perform its duty. The Creator, how- 
ever, not to encourage animals to abuse this benevolent insti- 
tution, has established pain as an attendant on infringement 
of the organic law, and made them suffer for the violation of 
it, even while he restores them. It is under this law that 
death has received its pangs. Instant death is not attended 
with pain of any perceptible duration ; and it is only when a 
lingering death occurs in youth and middle age, that the 
suffering is severe. Dissolution, however, does not occur at 
these^periods as a direct and intentional result of the organic 
laws, but as the consequence of infringement of them. Un- 
der the fair and legitimate operation of these laws, the indi- 
vidual whose constitution was at first sound, and whose life 
has been in accordance with their dictates, will live till old 
age fairly wears out his organized frame, and then the pang 
of expiration is little perceptible.* 

* The following table is copied from an interesting article by Mr. 
William Fraser, on the History and Constitution of Benefit or Friend- 
ly Societies, published in, the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 
for October 18'27 3 and is deduced from Returns by Friendly Societies 
in Scotland for various years, from 1 750 to 1 821. It shows how much 
iicknesa increases with age, and how little there is of it in youth, evea 



DEATH. 185 

This view of our constitution is objected to by some per- 
sons, because disease appears to them to invade our bodies, 
and after a time to end in death or disappear, without any 
organic cause being discoverable. On this subject I would 
observe, that there is a vast difference between the uncer- 
tain and the unascertained. It is now universally admitted 
that ali the movements of matter are regulated by laws, and 
that the motions are never uncertain, although their laws 
may in some instances be unascertained. The revolutions 
of the planets, for example, are fully understood, while 
those of some of the comets are as yet unknown ; but no 
philosopher imagines that the latter are uncertain. The 
minutest drop of water that descends the mighty Fall of 
Niagara, is regulated in all its movements by definite laws 
— whether it rise in mist, and float in the atmosphere to 
distant regions, there to descend as rain ; or be absorbed by 
a neighbouring shrub, and reappear as an atom in a blossom 
adorning the Canadian shore ; or be drunk up by a living 
creature, and sent into the wonderful circuit of its blood ; 
or become a portion of an oak, which at a future time shall 
career over the ocean as a ship. Nothing can be less as- 
certained, or probably less ascertainable by mortal study, 
than the motions of such an atom ; but every philosopher 
will, wothout a moment's hesitation, concede that not one 
of thsm is uncertain.* The first element in a philosophic 

in the present disordered state of human conduct. We may expect 
the quantity to decrease, at all ages, in proportion to the increase of 
obedience to the organic laws, [t is chiefly in advanced life, \v hen the 
constitution has lost a portion of its vigour, that the accumulated ef- 
fects of disobedience become apparent. 

Average Annual Sickness of Each Individual. 

**>• D±£ Week.. Days. Hours. ^^ 

Under 20 0.3797 2 16 1 in 136.95 

20-30 0.5916 4 3 1 ... 87.89 

30 40 6865 4 19 i ... 75.74 

40-50 1.0273 1 4 1 ... 50.61 

50-60 1.8806 1 6 3 I... 27.65 

60-70 5.6337 5 4 10 1 ... 9.23 

Above 70 16.5417 16 3 19 1 ... 3.14 

* I owe this forcible illustration to Dr. Chalmers, having heard it 
in one of his Lec f ures 

16* 



186 ORGANIC LAWS. 

understanding is the capacity of extending the same con- 
viction to the events evolved in every department of nature. 
A man who sees disease occurring in youth or middle age, 
and whose mind is not capable of perceiving that it is the 
result of imperfect or excessive action in some vital organ, 
and that imperfect or excessive action is just another name 
for deviation from the proper healthy state of that organ, is 
not capable of reasoning on the subject. It may be true 
that in many instances our knowledge is so imperfect, that 
we are incapable of unfolding the chain of connexion be- 
tween the disease and its organic cause ; but he is no philo- 
sopher who doubts the reality of the connexion. 

One reason of the obscurity that prevails on this subject, 
in the minds of persons not medically educated, is ignorance 
of the structure and functions of the body ; and another is, 
that diseases appear under two very distinct forms — struc- 
tural and functional — only the first of which is understood 
by common observers to constitute a proper organic malady 
If an arrow is shot into the eye, there is derangement of the 
structure ; and the most determined opponent of the natural 
laws will at once admit the connexion between the blindness 
which ensues, and the lesion of the organ. But if a watch- 
maker or an optical-instrument-maker, by long continued and 
excessive exertion of the eye, has become blind, the disease is 
called functional ; the function, from its organ being over- 
wrought, has given way, but frequently no alteration of 
structure can be perceived. No philosophic physiologist, 
however, doubts that there is a change in the structure, cor- 
responding to the functional derangement, although human 
observation connot detect it. He never says that it is 
nonsense to assert that the patient has become blind in 
consequence of infringement of the organic laws. It is one 
of these laws that the eyes shall be exercised moderate^, 
and it is a breach of that law to strain them to excess. The 
same principle applies to an immense number of diseases 
occurring under the organic laws. Imperfections in the 
tone, structure, or proportion of certain organs, may exist 
at birth, so hidden by their situation, or so slight, as not to 
be readily perceptible, but not the less on that account real 
and important ; or deviations may be made gradually and 
imperceptibly from the proper and healthy exercise of the 
functions ; and from one or other cause disease may invade 



DEATH 187 

the constitution. Religious persons term the disease a dis- 
pensation of God's providence ; the careless name it an 
unaccountable event ; but the enlightened physician inva- 
riably views it as the result of imperfect or excessive action 
of some organ or another, and he never doubts that it has 
been caused by deviations from the laws which the Creator 
has prescribed for the regulation of the animal economy. 
The objection that the doctrine of the organic laws which 
I have been inculcating is unsound, because diseases come 
and go without uneducated ^persons being able to trace 
the causes, has not a shadow of philosophy to support it. 
I may err in my exposition of these laws ; but I hope that 
I do not err in stating that neither disease nor death, in 
early and middle life, can take place under the ordinary 
administration of Providence, except when the laws have 
been infringed. 

The pains of premature death, then, are the punishments 
of infringement of the organic law ; and the object of that 
chastisement probably is to impress upon us the necessity 
of obeying them that we may live, and to prevent our 
abusing the remedial process inherent to a great extent in 
our constitution. 

Let us now view death as an institution appointed to 
man. If it be true, that the organic constitution of man, 
when sound in its elements, and preserved in accordance 
with the organic laws, is fairly calculated to endure hi 
health from infancy to old age ; and that death, when it oc- 
curs during the early or middle periods of life, is the con- 
sequence of departure from the physical and organic laws ; 
it follows, that, even in premature death, a benevolent prill 
ciple is discernible. Although the remedial process restores 
animals from moderate injuries, yet the very nature of the 
organic law must place a limit to it. If life had been pre- 
served, and health restored, after the brain had been blown 
to atoms by a bomb-shell, as effectually as a broken leg and 
a cut finger are healed, this would have been an actual 
abrogation of the organic law ; and all the curbs which that 
law imposes on the lower propensities, and all the incite- 
ments which it affords to the higher sentiments and intellect, 
would have been lost. The limit, then, is this, — that any 
disobedience from the effects of which restoration is per- 
mitted, shall be moderate in extent, and shall not involve. 



188 ORGANIC LAW3. 

to a great degree, any organ essential to life, such as the 
brain, lungs, stomach, or intestines. The very maintenance 
of the law, with all its advantages, requires that restoration 
from grievous derangement of these organs should not be 
permitted. When we reflect on the hereditary transmission 
of qualities to children, we clearly perceive benevolence to 
the race, in the institution which cuts short the life of an 
individual in whose person disease of essential organs has 
become so great as to have exceeded the limits of the 
remedial process ; for the extension of the punishment of 
his errors over an innumerable posterity is thereby prevented. 
In premature death, then, we see two objects accomplished: 
first, the individual sufferer is withdrawn from agonies 
which could serve no beneficial end to himself — he has 
transgressed the limits of recovery, and continued life 
would be protracted misery ; and, secondly, the race is 
guarantied against the future transmission of his disease by 
hereditary descent. 

The disciple of Mr. Owen formerly alluded to, who had 
grievously transgressed the organic law and suffered a pun- 
ishment of equal intensity, observed, when in the midst 
of his agony, — " Philosophers have urged the institution 
of death as an argument against divine goodness ; but not 
one of them could experience, for five minutes, the pain 
which I now endure, without looking upon it as a most 
merciful arrangement. I have departed from the natural 
laws, and suffered the punishment ; but I see in death only 
the Creator's benevolent hand, stretched out to terminate 
my agonies when they cease to serve any beneficial end." 
On this principle, the death of a feeble and sickly child is 
an act of mercy to it. It withdraws a being, in whose 
person the organic laws have been violated, from useless 
suffering ; cutting short, thereby, also the transmissions of 
its imperfections to posterity. If, then, the organic institu- 
tions which inflict pain and disease, as punishments for 
transgressing them, are founded in benevolence and wis- 
dom ; and if death, in the early and middle periods of life, 
is an arrangement for withdrawing the transgressor from 
farther suffering, after return to obedience is impossible, and 
protecting the race from the consequences of his errors, 
it also is in itself wise and benevolent. 

This, then, leaves only death in old age as a natural and 



DEATH. 189 

unavoidable institution of the Creator. It will not be de- 
nied, that, if old persons, when their powers of enjoyment 
are fairly exhausted, and their cup of pleasure is full, could 
be removed from this world, as we have supposed the lower 
animals to be, in an instant, and without pain or conscious- 
ness, to make way for a fresh and vigorous offspring, about 
to run the career which the old have terminated, there 
would be no lack of benevolence and justice in the arrange- 
ment. At present, while we live in ignorance and habitual 
neglect of the organic laws, death probably comes upon us 
with more pain and agony, even in advanced life, than would 
be its legitimate accompaniment if we placed ourselves in 
accordance with these ; so that we are not now in a condi- 
tion to ascertain the natural quantity of pain necessarily 
attendant on death. Judging from analogy, we may con- 
clude, that the close of a long life, founded at first, and af- 
terward spent, in accordance with the Creator's laws, 
would not be accompanied with great organic suffering, 
but that an insensible decay would steal upon the frame. 

Be this, however, as it may, I observe, in the next place, 
that as the Creator has bestowed on man animal faculties 
that fear death, and reason that carries home to him the 
conviction that he must die, it is an interesting inquiry, 
whether He has provided any natural means of relief from 
the consequences of this combination of terror. " And 
what thinkest thou," said Socrates to Aristodemus, "of 
this continual love of life, this dread of dissolution, which 
takes possession of us from the moment that we are con- 
scious of existence 1" " I think of it," answered he, " as 
the means employed by the same great and w r ise artist, 
deliberately determined to preserve what he has made." 
Lord Byron strongly expresses the same opinion, and is 
struck with the energetic efforts which he instinctively 
made in a moment of danger, to preserve his life, although 
in his hours of calm reflection he felt so unhappy that he 
wished to die. There are reasons for believing not only 
that the love of life is a special instinct, but that it is con 
nected with a particular organ, which is supposed to be 
situated at the base of the brain ; and that, catcris paribus, 
the feeling varies in intensity in different individuals, ac- 
cording to the size of the organ. I have ascertained, from 
numerous confidential communications, as well as by ob 



190 ORGANIC LAWS. 

servation, that even when external circumstances are equally 
prosperous and happy, there are great differences in the 
desire of life in different minds. Some persons have 
assured me, that death, viewed even as the extinction 
of being, and without reference to a future state, did not 
appear to them in the least appalling, or calculated, when 
contemplated as their certain fate, to impair the enjoyment 
of life ; and these were not profligate men, whose vices 
might make them desire annihilation as preferable to future 
punishment, but persons of pure lives and pious dispositions. 
Tnis experience is so different from the feelings entertained 
by ordinary persons, that I have been led to ascribe it to a 
very small development of the organ of the Love of Life in 
these individuals. A medical gentleman who was attached 
to the native army in India, informed me, that in many of 
the Hindoos the love of life was by no means strong. On 
the contrary, it was frequently found necessary to interpose 
force to compel them to make even moderate exertions, 
quite within the compas of their strength, to avoid death. 
That part of the base of the brain which lies between the 
ear and the anterior lobe, is generally narrow, measuring 
across the head, in such individuals. If there be an organ 
for the love of life, the vivacity of the instinct will diminish 
in proportion as the organ decays ; so that age, which 
induces the certain approach of death, will, in a correspond- 
ing degree, strip him of his terrors. The apparent excep- 
tions to this rule will be found in cases in which this organ 
predominates in size and activity, and preserves an as- 
cendency over the other organs even in decay. 

These ideas, however, are thrown out only as specula- 
tions, suggested by the facts before described. Whatever 
may be thought of them, it is certain that the Creator has 
bestowed moral sentiments on man, and arranged the whole 
of his existence on the principles of their supremacy ; and 
these, when duly cultivated and enlightened, are calculated 
to withdraw from him the terrors of death, in the same 
manner as unconsciousness of its existence saves from them 
the lower animals. 

1st, It is obvious that Amativeness and Philoprogemtive- 
ness are provided with direct objects of gratification, as one 
concomitant of the institution of death. If the same individ- 
uals had lived here for ever, there would have been no field 



DEATH. 191 

for the enjoyment that flows from the domestic union and tha 
rearing of offspring. The very existence of these propen- 
sities shows, that the production and rearing of young form 
part of the design of creation ; and the successive produc- 
tion of young appears necessarily to imply removal of the 
old. 

2d, Had things been otherwise arranged, all the other fac- 
ulties would have been limited in their gratifications* Con- 
ceive, for a moment, how much exercise is afforded to our 
intellectual and moral powers, in acquiring knowledge, com- 
municating it to the young, and providing for their enjoy- 
ments — also, what a delightful exercise of the higher senti- 
ments is implied in the intercourse between the aged and the 
young ; all which pleasures would have been unknown had 
there been no young in existence, which there could not have 
been without a succession of generations. 

3d, Constituted as man is, the succession of individuals 
withdraws beings whose physical and mental constitutions 
have run their course and become impaired in sensibility, 
and substitutes in their place fresh and vigorous minds and 
bodies, far better adapted for the enjoyment of creation. 

\th, If I am right in the position that the organic laws 
transmit to offspring, in an increasing ratio, the qualities 
most active in the parents, the law of succession provides 
for a far higher degree of improvement in the race than could 
have been reached, supposing the permanency of a single 
generation possessing the present human constitution. 

Let us inquire, then, how the moral sentiments are affected 
by death in old age, as a natural institution. 

Benevolence, glowing w T ith a disinterested desire for the 
diffusion and increase of enjoyment, utters no complaint 
against death in old age, as a transference of existence from 
a being impaired in its capacity for usefulness and pleasure, 
to one fresh and vigorous in all its powers, and fitted to carry 
forward, to a higher point of improvement, every beneficial 
measure previously begun. Conscientiousness, if thorough- 
ly enlightened, perceives no infringement of justice in the 
calling on a guest, satiated with enjoyment, to retire from 
the banquet, so as to permit a stranger with a keener and more 
youthful appetite to partake ; and Veneration, when instruct- 
ed by intellect that this is the institution of the Creator* and 
made accfuainted with its objects, bows in humble acquies* 



192 ORGANIC LAWS 

cence to the law. Now, if these powers have acquired, in 
any individual, that complete supremacy which they are 
clearly intended to hold, he will be placed by them as much 
above the terror of death as a natural institution, as the 
lower animals are by being ignorant of its existence. And 
unless the case were so, man would, by the very knowledge 
of death, be rendered, during his whole life, more miserable 
than they. 

In these observations, I have said nothing of the prospect 
of a future existence as a palliative of the evils of dissolu- 
tion, because I was bound to regard death, in the first in- 
stance, as the result of the organic law, and to treat of it as 
such But no one who considers that the prospect of a 
happy life to comp, is directly addressed to Veneration, Hope, 
Wonder, Benevolence, and Intellect, can fail to perceive that 
this consolation also is clearly founded on the principle, that 
the moral sentiments are intended by the Creator to protect 
man from the terrors of death. 

The true view of death, therefore, as a natural institution, 
is, that it is an essential part of the very system of organiza- 
tion ; that birth, growth, and arrival at maturity, as complete- 
ly imply decay and death in old age, as morning and noon 
imply evening and night, as spring and summer imply har- 
vest, or as the source of a river implies its termination. 
Besides, organized beings are constituted by the Creator to 
be the food of other organized beings, so that some must die. 
that others may live. Man, for i stance, cannot live on 
stones, or earth, o water, w T hich are not organized, but must 
feed on vegetable and animal substances ; so that death is 
as much, and as essentially, an inherent attribute of organ- 
ization as life itself. If vegetables, animals, and men, had 
been destined for a duration like that of mountains, we may 
presume, from analogy, that God, — instead of creating a 
primitive pair of each, and endowing these with extensive 
powers of reproduction, so as to usher into existence young 
beings destined to grow up to maturity by insensible degrees, 
— would have furnished the world with its definite comple- 
ment of living beings, perfect at first in all their parts and 
functions, and that these would have remained, like hills, 
without diminution and without increase. 

To prevent, however, all chance of being misapprehended, 
I repeat, that I do not at all allude to the state of the soul or 



DEATH. 193 

mind after death, but merely to tli3 dissolution of organized 
bodies ; that, according to the soundest view which I am able 
to obtain of the natural law, pain and death during youth and 
middle age, in the human species, are consequences of depar- 
ture from the Creator's laws, — while death in old age, by 
insensible decay, is an essential and apparently indispensa- 
ble part of the system of organic existence ; that this arrange- 
ment admits of the succession of individuals, substituting the 
young and vigorous for the feeble and decayed ; that it is 
directly the means by which organized beings live, and 
indirectly the means by which Amativeness, Philoprogeni- 
tiveness, and a variety of our other faculties obtain gratifica- 
tion ; that it admits of the race ascending in the scale of 
improvement, both in their organic and in their mental quali- 
ties ; and finally, that the moral sentiments, when supreme 
in activity, and enlightened by intellect, which perceives its 
design and consequences, are calculated to place man in 
harmony with it ; while religion addresses its consolation 
to the same faculties, and completes what reason leaves un- 
done. 

If the views now unfolded be correct, death in old age will 
never be abolished as long as man continues an organized 
being ; but pain and the frequency of premature death will 
decrease, in the exact ratio of his obedience to the physical 
and organic laws. It is interesting to observe, that there is 
already some evidence of this process having actually begun. 
About seventy years ago, tables of the average duration of 
life in England were compiled for the use of the Life Insu- 
rance Companies ; and from them it appears that the average 
duration of life was then 28 years — that is, 1000 persons 
being born, and the years of their respective lives being added 
together, and divided by 1000, the result was 28 to each 
}3y recent tables, it appears that the average is now 32 years 
to each ; that is to say, in consequence of superior morality, 
cleanliness, knowledge, and general obedience to the 
Creator's laws, fewer individuals now perish in infancy, 
youth, and middle age, than thus perished seventy years ago. 
Some persons have said, that the difference arises from errors 
in compiling the old tables, and that the superior habits of 
the people are not the cause. It is probable that there may 
be a portion of truth in both views. There may be some 
errors in the old tables, but it is quite natural that increasing 
17 



1U4 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

knowledge and stricter obedience to the organic laws should 
diminish the number of premature deaths. If this idea be 
correct, the average duration of life should go on increasing ; 
and our successors, two centuries hence, may probably attain 
to an average of 40 years, and then ascribe to errors in our 
tables the present low average of 32.* 

8ECT* III. CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF 

THE MORAL LAW. 

We come now to consider the Moral Law, which is pro- 
claimed by the higher sentiments and intellect, acting har- 
moniously, and holding the animal faculties in subjection. 
In surveying the moral and religious codes of different na- 
tions, and the moral and religious opinions of different philos- 
ophers, every reflecting mind must have been struck with 
their diversity. Phrenology, by demonstrating the differ- 
ences of combination of the faculties, enables us to account 
for these varieties of sentiment. The code of morality fram- 
ed by a legislator in whom the animal propensities were 
strong and the moral sentiments weak, would be very differ- 
ent from one instituted by another lawgiver, in whom this 
combination was reversed. In like manner, a system of 
religion, founded by an individual in whom Destructiveness, 
Wonder, and Cautiousness were very large, and Veneration, 
Benevolence, and Conscientiousness deficient, would present 
views of the Supreme Being widely dissimilar to those which 
would be promulgated by a person in whom the last three 
faculties and intellect decidedly predominated. Phrenology 
shows, that the particular code of morality and religion which 
is most completely in harmony with the whole faculties of the 
individual^ will necessarily appear to him to be the best 
while he refers only to the dictates of his individual mind as 
the standard of right and. wrong. But if we are able to 
show, that the whole scheme of external creation is arranged 
in harmony with certain principles, in preference to others, so 
that enjoyment flows upon the individual from without when 
his conduct is in conformity with them, and that evil over- 
takes him when he departs from them, we shall then obvious- 
ly prove that the former is the morality and religion estab- 
lished by the Creator, and that individual men, who support 

* See Appendix. No. IX. 



INFRINGEMENT OF T#E MORAL LAW. 195 

Jiflferent codes, must necessarily be deluded by imperfec- 
tions in their own minds. That constitution of mind, also, 
may be pronounced to be the best, which harmonizes most 
completely with the morality and religion established by 
the Creator's arrangements. In this view, morality becomes 
a science, and departures from its dictates may be demon- 
strated as practical follies, injurious to the real interest and 
happiness of the individual, just as errors in logic are capa- 
ble of refutation to the satisfaction of the understanding. 

Uugald JStewart has most justly remarked, that "the im- 
portance of agriculture and of religious toleration to the 
prosperity of states, the criminal impolicy of thwarting the 
Kind arrangements of Providence by restraints upon com- 
merce, and the duty of legislators to study the laws of the 
moral world as the ground-work and standard of their own, 
appear, to minds unsophisticated by inveterate prejudices, 
as approaching nearly to the class of axioms ; — yet, how 
much ingenious and refined discussion has been employed 
even in our own times, to combat the prejudices which 
every where continue to struggle against them ; and how 
remote does the period yet seem, when there is any proba 
bility that these prejudices will be completely abandoned !"** 
The great cause of the long continuance of these preju 
dices, is the want of an intelligible and practical philosophy 
of morals. Before ordinary minds can perceive that the 
world is really governed by divine laws, it is obvious that 
they must become acquainted with, first, the nature of man, 
physical, animal, moral, and intellectual ; secondly, the re- 
lations of the different parts of that nature to each other; 
and, thirdly, the relationship of the whole to God and ex- 
ternal objects. The present treatise is an attempt (a very 
feeble and imperfect one indeed) to arrive, by the aid of 
phrenolog\r, at a demonstration of morality as a science. 
The interests dealt with in the investigation are so eleva- 
ting, and the effort itself is so delightful, that the attempt 
carries its own reward, however unsuccessful in its results 
I am not without hope, that if phrenology as the science of 
mind, and the doctrine of the natural laws, were taught to 
the people as part of their ordinary education, the removal 
of these prejudices would be considerably accelerated. 

* Preliih. Dissert, to Supp. Encyc. Bnt. p. 127. 



196 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

Assuming, then, that, among the faculties of the mine!, 
the higher sentiments and intellect hold the natural supre- 
macy, I shall endeavour to show, that obedience to the dic- 
tates of these powers is rewarded with pleasing emotions in 
the mental faculties themselves, and with the most beneficial 
external consequences ; whereas disobedience is followed 
by deprivation of these emotions, by painful feelings within 
the mind, and by great external evil. 

First, Obedience is accompanied by pleasing emotions 
in the faculties. It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the 
circumstance, that every propensity, sentiment, and intel- 
lectual faculty, when gratified in harmony with all the rest, 
is a fountain of pleasure. How many exquisite thrills of 
joy arise from Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, Acqui- 
sitiveness, Constructiveness, Love of Approbation, and 
Self-Esteem, when gratified in accordance with the mofaJ 
sentiments ! Who that has ever poured forth the aspira- 
tions of Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and Veneration, directed 
to an object in whom Intellect and Conscientiousness alsc 
rejoiced, has not experienced the deep delight of such an 
exercise ] And who is a stranger to the grateful pleasures 
attending aft active Benevolence] Turning to the intel* 
lect, what pleasures are afforded by the scenery of nature, 
by painting, poetry, and music, to those who possess the 
combination of faculties suited to these objects ! And how 
rich a feast does philosophy yield to those who possess large 
reflective organs, combined with Concentrativeness and 
Conscientiousness ! The reader is requested, therefore, to 
keep steadily in view, that these exquisite rewards are 
attached by the Creator to the active exercise of our facul- 
ties in accordance with the moral law ; and that one punish- 
ment, clear, obvious, and undeniable, inflicted on those 
who neglect or infringe that law, is deprivation of these 
pleasures. This is a consideration very little attended to ; 
because mankind, in general, live in such habitual neglect 
of the moral law, that they have but to a very partial extent 
experienced its rewards, and do not know the enjoyment 
they are deprived of by its infringement. Before its full 
measure can be judged of, the mind must be instructed in 
its own constitution, in that of external objects, and in the 
relationship established between it and them, and between 
it and the Creator. Until a tolerably distinct perception 



INFRINGEMENT OF TKE MORAL LAW. 197 

6f these truths be obtained, the faculties cannot enjoy repose, 
nor act in full vigour and harmony : while, for example, oui 
forefathers regarded the marsh fevers to which they were 
subjected in consequence of deficient draining of their fields, 
— and the outrages on person and property, attendant on the 
Wars waged by the English against the Scots, or by ono 
feudal lord against another, even on their own soil, — not as 
punishments for particular infringements of the organic and 
moral laws, to be removed by obedience to these laws, but 
as inscrutable dispensations of God's providence, which it 
behoved them meekly to endure, but not to avert, — the full 
enjoyment which the moral and intellectual faculties were 
fairly calculated by the Creator to afford, could not be 
experienced. Benevolence would pine in dissatisfaction ; 
Veneration would flag in its devotions ; and Conscientious- 
ness would suggest endless surmises of disorder and injus- 
tice in a scheme of creation under which such evils occurred 
and were left without a remedy : — in short, the full tide 
of moral, religious, and intellectual enjoyment could not 
possibly flow, until views more in accordance with the con- 
stitution and desires of the moral faculties were obtained. 
The same evil still afflicts mankind to a prodigious extent. 
How is it possible for the Hindoo, Mussulman, Chinese, 
and savage American, while they continue to worship 
deities whose qualities outrage Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Conscientiousness, and while they remain in profound 
ignorance of almost all the Creator's natural institutions, in 
consequence of infringing which they suffer punishment 
without ceasing — how is it possible for such men to form 
even a conception of the gratifications which the moral and 
intellectual nature of man is calculated to enjoy, when 
exercised in harmony with the Creator's real character and 
institutions 1 This operation of the moral law is not the 
less real because many do not recognise it. Sight is not a 
less excellent gift to those who see, because some men born 
blind have no conception of the extent of pleasure and ad- 
vantage from which the want of it cuts them off. 

The qualities manifested by the Creator may be inferred 
from the works of creation ; but it is obvious, that, to arrive 
at the soundest views, we would need to know his institu- 
tions thoroughly. To a grossly ignorant people, who suffer 
hourly from transgression of his laws, the Deity will appear 
17* 



198 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

infinitely more mysterious and severe than to an enlightened 
nation, who trace the principles of his government in many 
departments of his works, and who, by observing his laws 
avoid the penalties of infringement. The character of the 
Divine Being, under the natural system, will go on rising 
in human apprehension, in exact proportion as his works 
shall be understood. The low and miserable conceptions 
of God formed by the vulgar among the Greeks and Romans, 
were the reflections of their own ignorance of natural, moral, 
and political science. The discovery and improvement of 
phrenology must necessarily have a great effect on natural 
religion. Before phrenology was known, the moral and 
intellectual constitution of man was unascertained : in con- 
sequence, the relations of external nature towards it could 
not be competently judged of; and, while these were 
involved in obscurity, many of the ways of Providence 
must have appeared mysterious and severe, which in them- 
selves were quite the reverse. Again, as bodily suffering 
and mental perplexity would bear a proportion to this 
ignorance, the character of God would appear to the natural 
eye in that condition, much more unfavourable than it 
will seem after these clouds of darkness shall have passed 
away. 

Some persons, in their great concernment about a future 
life, are prone to overlook the practical direction of the 
mind in the present. When we consider the nature and 
objects of the mental faculties, we perceive that a great 
number of them have the most obvious and undeniable re- 
ference to this life : for example, Amativeness, Philopro- 
genitiveness, Combativeness^ Destructivencss, Acquisitive- 
ness, Secret iveness, Cautiousness, Self-Esteem, and Love 
of Approbation, with Size, Form, Colouring, Weight, Tune, 
Wit, and probably other faculties, stand in such evident 
relationship to this particular world, with its moral and 
physical arrangements, that if they were not capable of 
legitimate application here, it would be difficult to assign a 
reason for their being bestowed on us. We possess also 
Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, Con- 
scientiousness, and Reflecting Intellect, all of which appear 
to be particularly adapted to a higher sphere. But the im- 
portant consideration is, that here on earth these two sets 
€?f faculties are combined ; and, on the same principle that 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 199 

led Sir Isaac Newton to infer the combustibility of the 
■diamond, I am disposed to expect that the external world, 
when its comstitution and relations shall be sufficiently 
understood, will be founds to be in harmony with all our 
faculties, — and that of course the character of the Deity, as 
unfolded by the works of creation, will more and more 
gratify our moral and intellectual powers, in proportion as 
knowledge shall advance. The structure of the eye is 
admirably adapted to the laws of light, that of the ear to 
the laws of sound, and that of the muscles to the laws of 
gravitation ; and it would be strange if our mental constitu- 
tion were not as wisely adapted to the general order of the 
external world. 

The principle is universal, and admits of no exception, 
that want of power and activity in every faculty, is attended 
with deprivation of the pleasures attendant on its vivacious 
exercise. He who is so deficient in Tune that he cannot 
distinguish melody, is cut off from a vast source of gratifica- 
tion enjoyed by those who possess that organ in a state of 
vigour and highly cultivated ; and the same principle holds 
in the case of every other organ and faculty. Criminals and 
profligates of every description, therefore, from the very 
constitution of their nature, are excluded from great enjoy- 
ments attended on virtue ; and this is the first natural pun- 
ishment to which they are inevitably liable. Persons also, 
who are ignorant of the constitution of their own minds, and 
the relations among external objects, not only suffer many 
direct evils on this account, but, through the consequent in- 
activity of their faculties, are, besides, deprived of many 
exalted enjoyments. The works of creation, and the char- 
acter of the Deity, are the legitimate objects of our highest 
powers ; and hence he who is blind to their qualities, loses 
nearly the whole benefit of his moral and intellectual exis- 
tence. If there is any one to whom these gratifications are 
unknown, or appear trivial, either he must, to a very consid- 
erable degree, be still under the dominion of the animal 
propensities, or his views of the Creator's character and in- 
stitutions are not in harmony with the natural dictates ot 
the moral sentiments and intellect. The custom of teaching 
children to regard with the highest admiration the literature 
and history of the Greeks and Romans, stained with out- 
rages on all the superior faculties of man, and of diverting 



fcOO CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

their minds away from the study of the Creator and hit 
works, has had a most pernicious effect on the views enter- 
tained of this world by many excellent and intellectual indi- 
viduals. This is truly preferring the achievements of bar- 
barous men to the glorious designs of God ; and we need 
not be surprised that no satisfaction to the moral sentiments 
is experienced while such a course of education is pursued. 

But, in the second place, as the world is arranged on the 
principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and in- 
tellect, observance of the moral law is attended with exter- 
nal advantages, and infringement of it with positive evil 
consequences ; and from this constitution arises the second 
natural punishment of misconduct. 

Let us trace the advantages of obedience. — In the domes 
tic circle, if we preserve habitually Benevolence, Conscien- 
tiousness, Veneration, and Intellect supreme, it is quite 
undeniable, that we shall rouse the moral and intellectual 
faculties of children, servants, and assistants, to love us, and 
to yield us willing service, obedience, and aid. Our com- 
mands will then be reasonable, mild, and easily executed, 
and the commerce will be that of love. With regard to our 
equals in society, what would we not give for a friend in 
whom we were perfectly convinced of the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments ; what love, confidence, and delight, would 
we not repose in him ! To a merchant, physician, lawyer, 
magistrate or an individual in any public employment, how 
invaluable would be the habitual supremacy of these senti- 
ments ! The Creator has given different talents to different 
individuals, and limited our powers, so that we execute 
any work best by confining our attention to one department 
©f labour — an arrangement which amounts to a direct institu- 
tion of separate trades and professions. Under the natural 
laws, then, the manufacturer may pursue his calling with 
the entire approbation of all the moral sentiments, for he is 
dedicating his talents to supply the wants of his fellow-men ; 
and how much more successful will he not be, if his every 
proceeding is accompanied by the desire to act benevolently 
and honestly towards those who are to consume and pay for 
the products of his labour ! He cannot gratify his Acquisi- 
tiveness half so successfully by any other method. The 
same remark applies to the merchant, the lawyer, and the 
physician whose whole spirits breathe a disinterested desire 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 201 

to consult^ as a paramount object, the interests of their clients 
and patients, not only obtain the direct reward of gratifying 
their own moral faculties, which is no slight enjoyment, but 
also reap a positive gratification to their Self-Ksteem and 
Love of Approbation, in high respect and well-founded repu- 
tation, — and to their Acquisitiveness, increasing emolument, 
not grudgingly paid but willingly offered, from persons who 
feel the worth of the services bestowed. 

There are three conditions required by the moral and in- 
tellectual law, which must all be observed to insure its re- 
wards. 1st, The department of industry selected must be 
really useful to human beings : Benevolence demands this ; 
2(7, The quantum of labour bestowed must bear a just pro- 
portion to the natural demand for the commodity produced : 
Intellect requires this ; and, '3d, In our social connexions, we 
must imperatively attend to the organic law, that different 
individuals possess different developments of brain, and in 
consequence different natural talents and dispositions, — and 
we must rely on each, only to the extent warranted by his 
natural endowment. 

If, then, an individual have received, at birth, a sound or- 
ganic constitution and favourably developed brain, and if he 
live in accordance with the physical, the organic, the moral, 
and the intellectual laws, it appears to me that, in the consti- 
tution of the world, he has received an assurance from the 
Creator, of provision for his animal wants, and high enjoy- 
ment in the legitimate exercise of his various mental powers. 

I have already observed, that before we can obey the 
Creator's institutions we must know them ; that the science 
which teaches the physical laws is natural philosophy ; and 
that the organic laws belong to the department of anatomy 
and physiology : and I now add, that it is the business of 
the Political Economist to unfold the kinds of industry that 
are really necessary to the welfare of mankind, and the de- 
grees of labour that will meet with a just reward. The lead- 
ing objects of political economy, as a science, is to increase 
enjoyment, by directing the application of industry. To at- 
tain this end, however, it is obviously necessary that the na- 
ture of man, the constitution of the physical world, and the 
relations between these, should be known. Hitherto, the 
knowledge of the former of these elementary parts has been 
v«ry deficient, and, in consequence, the whole superstruc* 



202 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

tare has been weak and unproductive, in comparison with 
what it may become when founded on a more perfect basis. 
Political Economists have never taught that the world is ar- 
ranged on the principle of supremacy of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect,- — that consequently, to render man 
happy, his leading pursuits must be such as will exercise and 
gratify these powers, — and that his life will necessarily be 
miserable, if devoted entirely to the production of wealth. 
They have proceeded on the notion, that the accumulation 
of wealth is the summum bonum : but all history testifies, 
that national happiness does not invariably increase in pro- 
portion to national riches ; and until they shall perceive 
and teach that intelligence and morality are the foundation 
of all lasting prosperity, they will never interest the great 
body of mankind, nor give a valuable direction to their ef- 
forts. 

If the views contained in the present treatise be sound, it 
will become a leading object with future masters in that sci- 
ence, to demonstrate the necessity that civilized man should 
limit his bodily, and increase his moral and intellectual occu- 
pations, as the only means of saving himself from ceaseless 
punishment under the natural laws. 

The idea of men in general being taught natural philoso- 
phy, anatomy, physiology, political economy, and the other 
sciences that expound the natural laws, has been sneered at 
as utterly absurd and ridiculous.* But I would ask, In what 
occupations are human brings so urgently engaged, that they 
have no leisure to bestow on the study of the Creator's laws \ 
A course of lectures on natural philosophy would occupy 
sixty or seventy hours in the delivery ; a course on anatomy 
and physiology the same ; and a pretty full course on phre- 
nology can be delivered in forty hours ! These, twice or 
thrice repeated, would serve to initiate the student, so that 

* It is pleasing to observe, that great progress has been made in 
appreciating the importance of the kind of education here recommend- 
ed, since the first edition of this work was published. In Edinburgh, 
an association of the industrious classes has been formed for obtain- 
ing instruction in useful and entertaining knowledge, and it has met 
with the greatest encouragement. Uuder its superintendence, lec- 
tures have been delivered on all the sciences enumerated in the text, 
to audiences consisting of both sexes, and with eminent success. A 
notice of its constitution will be found in the Appendix, No. X 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 203 

he could afterward advance in the same paths, by the aid of 
observation and books. Is life, then, so brief, and are our 
hours so urgently occupied by higher and more important 
duties, that we cannot afford these pittances of time to learn 
the laws that regulate our existence 1 No ! The only dif- 
ficulty is in obtaining the desire for knowledge ; for when 
that is attained, time will not be wanting. No idea can be 
more preposterous, than that of human beings having no 
time to study and obey the natural laws. These laws pun- 
ish so severely when neglected, that they cause the offender 
to lose far more time in undergoing his chastisement, than 
would be requisite to obey them. A gentleman extensively 
engaged in business, whose nervous and digestive systems 
have been impaired by neglect of the organic laws, was de- 
sired to walk in the open air at least one hour a-day ; to re- 
pose from all exertion, bodily and mental, for one full hour 
after breakfast, and another full hour after dinner, because 
the brain cannot expend its energy to good purpose in think- 
ing and in aiding digestion at the same time ; and to practise 
moderation in diet : this last injunction he regularly observed, 
but he laughed at the very idea of his having three hours a- 
day to spare for attention to his health- The reply was, that 
the organic laws admit of no exception, and that he must 
either obey them or take the consequences ; but that the 
time lost in enduring the punishment would be double or 
treble that requisite for obedience : and, accordingly, the fact 
was so. Instead of fulfilling an appointment, it is quite usual 
for him to send a note, perhaps at two in the afternoon, in 
these terms : — " I was so distressed with headach last night, 
that I never closed my eyes ; and to-day I am still incapabl. 
of being out of bed." On other occasions, he is out of bed, 
but apologises for incapacity to attend to business, on account 
of an intolerable pain in the region of the stomach. In short, 
if the hours lost in these painful sufferings were added to- 
gather, and distributed over the days when he is able for duty* 
he would find them far outnumber those which would suffice 
for obedience to the organic laws — and with this difference 
in the results : by neglect he loses both his hours and his 
enjoyments ; whereas, by obedience, he would be rewarded 
by aptitude for business, and a pleasing consciousness of 
existence. 



204 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

We shall understand the operation- of the moral and intel- 
lectual laws more completely, by attending to the evils which 
arise from neglect of them. 

I. Let us consider Individuals. At present, the almost 
universal persuasion of civilized men is, that happiness 
consists in the possession of wealth, power, and external 
splendour ; objects related to the animal faculties and in- 
tellect much more than to the moral sentiments. In con- 
sequence, each individual sets out in the pursuit of these as 
the chief business of his life ; and, in the ardour of the chase, 
he recognises no limitations on the means which he may 
employ, except those imposed by the municipal law. He 
does not perceive or acknowledge the existence of natural 
laws, determining not only the sources of his happiness, 
but the steps by which it may be attained. From this moral 
and intellectual blindness, merchants and manufacturers, in 
numberless instances, hasten to be rich beyond the course 
of nature : that is to say, they engage in enterprises far 
exceeding the extent of their capital and capacity ; they 
place their property in the hands of debtors, whose natural 
talents and morality are so low, that they ought never to 
have been entrusted with a shilling ; they send their goods 
to sea without insuring them, or leave them uninsured in 
their warehouses ; they ask pecuniary accommodation from 
other merchants, to enable them to carry on undue specula- 
tions, and become security for them in return, and both fall 
into misfortunes ; or they live in splendour and extrava- 
gance, far beyond the limit of the natural return of their 
capital and talents, and speedily reach ruin as their goal. 
In every one of these instances, the calamity is obviously 
the consequence of infringement of the moral and intel- 
lectual law. The lawyer, medical practitioner, or proba- 
tioner in the church, who is disappointed of his reward, 
will, in most cases, be found to have placed himself in a 
profession for which his natural talents and dispositions did 
not fit him, or to have pursued his vocation under the 
guidance chiefly of the lower propensities ; preferring self- 
ishness to honourable regard for the interests of his em- 
ployers. Want of success in these professions, appears to 
me to be owing, in a high degree, to three causes. First, 
the brain may be too small, or constitutionally lymphatic, 
so that the mind does not act with sufficient energy to make 



INFRINGEMENT OP THE MORAL LAW. 205 

an impression. Secondly, some particular organs indis- 
pensably requisite to success, may be very small — as 
Language, or Causality, in a lawyer ; deficiency of the first 
rendering him incapable of ready utterance, and that of the 
second, destitute of that intuitive sagacity, which sees at a 
glance the bearing of the facts and principles founded on by 
his adversary, so as to estimate the just inferences that fol- 
low, and to point them out. A lawyer, who is weak in this 
power, appears to his client like a pilot who does not know 
the shoals and the rocks. His deficiency is perceived when- 
ever difficulty presents itself, and he is pronounced unfit to 
take charge of great interests ; he is then passed by, and 
suffers the penalties of having made an erroneous choice 
of a profession. The third cause is predominance of the 
animal and selfish faculties. The client and the patient 
discriminate instinctively between the cold, pitiless, but 
pretending manner of Acquisitiveness and Love of Approba- 
tion, and the unpretending genuine warmth of Benevolence, 
Veneration, and Conscientiousness ; and they discover very 
speedily that the intellect inspired by the latter sees more 
clearly, and advances more successfully, their interests, than 
when animated only by the former. The victim of selfish- 
ness either never rises, or quickly sinks, wondering why his 
merits are neglected. 

In all these instances, the failure of the merchant, and the 
bad success of the lawyer and physician, are the consequen- 
ces of infringement of the natural laws, either by himself 
or by those with whom he is connected ; so that the evil 
they suffer is the punishment for having failed in a great 
duty, not only to society, but to themselves, 

II. Some of the Calamities arising from infringement 
of the Social Law may next be considered. 

The greatest difficulties present themselves in tracing 
the operation of the moral and intellectual laws, in the wide 
field of social life. An individual may be made to compre- 
hend how, if he commits an error, he should suffer a par- 
ticular punishment; but when calamity overtakes whole 
classes of the community, each person absolves himself 
from all share of the blame, and regards himself simply as 
the victim of a general but inscrutable visitation. Let u» 
then examine briefly the Social Law. 
18 



206 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

In regarding the human faculties, we perceive that num- 
berless gratifications spring from the social state. The 
muscles of a single individual could not rear the habitations, 
build the ships, forge the anchors, construct the machinery, 
or, in short, produce the countless enjoyments that every- 
where surround us, and which are attained in consequence 
of men being constituted so as instinctively to combine their 
powers and skill, to obtain a common end. Here, then, 
are very great advantages resulting directly from the social 
law ; but, in the next place, social intercourse is the means 
of affording direct gratification to a variety of our mental 
faculties. If we lived in solitude, the propensities, senti- 
ments, and reflecting faculties, would be deprived — some 
of them absolutely, and others of them nearly — of all op- 
portunities of gratification. The social law, then, is the 
source of the highest delights of our nature, and its institu- 
tion indicates the greatest wisdom and benevolence towards 
us in the Creator. 

Still, however, this law does not suspend or subvert the 
laws instituted for the regulation of the conduct of man as 
an individual. If a man go to sea in a ship, the natural 
laws require that his intellectual faculties shall have been 
previously instructed in navigation, and in the features of 
the coasts and seas to be visited ; that he shall know and 
avoid the shoals, currents, and eddies ; that he shall trim 
his canvass in proportion to the gale ; and that his animal 
faculties shall be kept so much under subjection to his moral 
sentiments, that he shall not abandon himself to drunken- 
ness, sloth, or any animal indulgence, when he ought to be 
watchful at his duty. If he obey the natural laws, he will 
be safe ; and if he disobey them he may be drowned.* It is 
obvious that it must be a small vessel, and bound only on a 
short voyage, that could be managed by one man ; for he 
must eat and sleep, and he could not perform these func- 
tions and manage his sails at the same time. It is the in- 
terest, therefore, of individuals who wish to go to sea, to 
avail themselves of the social law ; that is, to combine their 
powers under one leader. By doing so, they may sail in a 

* I wave at present the question of storm?, which he could not 
foresee, as these fill under the head of ignorance of natural laws 
which may be subsequently discovered. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 207 

larger ship, have more ample stores of provisions, obtain 
intervals for rest, and enjoy each other's society. If at the 
same time they yield obedience to the intellectual laws, by 
placing in the situation of captain an individual fully quali- 
fied for the duty, they will enjoy the reward in sailing safely 
and in comfort ; if they disregard these laws, and place in 
charge of the ship an individual whose intellectual faculties 
are weak, whose animal propensities are strong, whose 
moral sentiments are in abeyance, and who, in consequence, 
habitually neglects the natural laws, they may suffer the 
penalty in being wrecked. 

I know it will be objected that the crew and passengers 
do not appoint the captain ; but in every case, except im- 
pressment in the British navy, they may go into, or stay 
out of, a particular ship, according as they discover the 
captain to possess the natural qualities or not. This, at 
present, I am aware, ninety-nine individuals out of an 
hundred never inquire into ; but so do ninety-nine out of 
an hundred neglect many other natural laws, and suffer the 
penalty, because their moral and intellectual faculties have 
never yet been instructed in the existence and effects of 
these, or trained to observe and obey them. But they have 
the power from nature of obeying them, if properly taught 
and trained ; and, besides, I offer this merely as an illustra- 
tion of the mode of operation of the social law. 

Another example may-be given. By employing ser- 
vants, the labours of life are rendered less burdensome to 
the master : but he must employ individuals who know the 
moral law, and who possess the desire to act under it ; 
otherwise, as a punishment for neglecting this requisite, he 
may be robbed, cheated, or murdered. Phrenology pre- 
sents the means of observing this law, in a degree quite 
unattainable without it, by the facility which it affords in 
discovering the natural talents and dispositions of indivi- 
duals. 

By entering into copartnership, merchants and other 
persons in business may extend their employment, and gain 
advantages beyond those they could reap if labouring as 
individuals. But, by the natural law, each must take care 
that his partner knows, and is inclined to obey, the moral 
and intellectual laws, as the only condition on which the 
Creator will permit him securely to reap the advantages of 



208 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

the social compact. If a partner in China be deficient in 
intellect and moral sentiment, another in London may be 
utterly ruined. It is said that this in an example of the 
innocent suffering for, or at least along with, the guilty ; 
but it is not so. It is an example of a person seeking to 
obtain the advantages of the social law without conceiving 
himself bound to obey the conditions required by it ; the 
first of which is, that those individuals of whose services he 
avails himself shall be capable and willing to observe the 
moral and intellectual laws. 

Let us now advert to the calamities which overtake whole 
classes of men, or communities, under the social law, — 
trace their origin, and see how far they are attributable to 
infringement of the Creator's laws. 

If I am right in representing the whole faculties of man 
as intended by the Creator to be gratified, and the moral 
sentiments and intellect as the higher and directing powers, 
with which all natural institutions are in harmony ; it fol- 
lows, that if large communities of men, in their systematic 
conduct, habitually seek the gratification of the inferior 
propensities, and allow either no part, or too small and in • 
adequate a part, of their time to be devoted to the regular 
employment of the higher powers, they will act in direct 
opposition to the laws of nature, and will, of course, suffer 
the punishment in sorrow and disappointment. Now, to 
confine ourselves to our own country, — it is certain that, 
until within these few years, the labouring population of 
Britain were not taught that it was any part of their duty, 
as rational creatures, to restrain their propensities, so as 
not to multiply their numbers beyond the demand for their 
labour and the supply of food for their offspring ; and up to 
the present hour this most obvious and important doctrine 
is not admitted by one in a thousand, and not acted upon as 
a practical principle by one in ten thousand of those whose 
happiness or misery depends on observance of it. The doc- 
trine of Malthus, that " population cannot go on perpetually 
increasing, without pressing on the limits of the means of 
subsistence, and that a check of some kind or other must, 
sooner, or later, be opposed to it," just amounts to this, — 
that the means of subsistence are not susceptible of such 
rapid and unlimited increase as the number of the people,* 
and that, in consequence, the amative propensity must be 






INFRINGEMENT OP THE MORAL LAW. 209 

restrained by reason, otherwise population will be checked 
by misery. This principle is in accordance with the views 
of human nature maintained in the present treatise, and 
applies to all the faculties. Thus Philoprogenitiveness, 
when indulged in opposition to reason, leads to spoiling 
children, which is followed directly by misery both to them 
and to their parents. Acquisitiveness, when uncontrolled 
by reason and morality, leads to avarice or theft, and these 
again carry suffering in their train. 

But so little are such views attended to, that the lives of 
the inhabitants of Britain generally are devoted to the acqui- 
sition of wealth, of power and distinction, or of animal 
pleasure : in other words, the great object of the labouring 
classes, is to live and gratify the inferior propensities ; of the 
mercantile and manufacturing population, to gratify Acqui- 
sitiveness and Self-Esteem ; of the more intelligent class of 
gentlemen, to gratify Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation, 
by attaining political, literary, or philosophical eminence, and 
of another portion, to gratify Love of Approbation by suprem- 
acy in fashion — and these gratifications are sought by means 
not in accordance with the dictates of the higher sentiments, 
but by the joint aid of the intellect and animal powers. If 
the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect be the 
natural law, then, as often observed, every circumstance 
connected with human life must be in harmony with it : that 
is to say, first. After rational restraint on population, and 
proper use made of machinery, such moderate labour as will 
leave ample time for the systematic exercise of the higher 
powers will suffice to provide for human wants ; and, secondly f 
If this exercise be neglected, and the time which ought to be 
dedicated to it be employed in labour to gratify the propensi- 
ties, direct evil will ensue — and this accordingly appears to 
me to be really the result. 

By means of machinery, and the aids derived from science, 
the ground can be cultivated, and every imaginary necessary 
and luxury produced in ample abundance, at a moderate ex- 
penditure of labour by any population not in itself superabun- 
dant. If men were to stop whenever they had reached this 
point, and to dedicate the residue of each day to moral and 
intellectual pursuits, the consequence would be the existence 
of ready and steady, because not overstocked, markets. 
Labour, pursued till it provided abundance, but not super* 
18* 



210 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

fluity, would meet with a certain and just reward, and would 
also yield a vast increase of happiness ; for no joy equals 
that which springs from the moral sentiments and intellect 
excited by the contemplation, pursuit, and observance, of the 
Creator's laws. Farther, morality would be improved ; for 
men, being happy, would become less vicious : and, lastly, 
there would be improvement in the organic, moral, and intel- 
lectual capabilities of the race ; tor the active moral and in- 
tellectual organs of the parents would tend to increase the 
volume of these in their offspring — so that each generation 
would start not only with greater stores of acquired know- 
ledge than those which its predecessors possessed, but 
with higher natural capabilities of turning them to account. 
Before merchants and manufacturers can be expected to act 
in this manner, a great change must be effected in their senti- 
ments and perceptions ; but so was a striking revolution ef- 
fected in the ideas and practices of the tenantry west of Ed- 
inburgh, when they removed the stagnant pools between 
each ridge of land, and banished ague from their district. 
If any reader will compare the state of Scotland during the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, correctly and 
spiritedly represented in Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grand* 
father, with ,its present condition in regard to knowledge, 
morality, religion, and the comparative ascendency of the 
rational over the animal part of our nature, he will perceive 
so great an improvement in later times, that the commence- 
ment of the millennium itself, five or six hnndred years 
hence, would scarcely be a greater advance beyond the pre- 
sent, than the present is beyond the past. If the laws of the 
Creator be really what are here represented, it is obvious 
that, were they taught as elementary truths to every class of 
the community, and were the sentiment of Veneration called 
in to enforce obedience to them, a set of new motives and 
principles would be brought into play, calculated to accele- 
rate the change ; especially if it were seen — what, in the next 
place, I proceed to show — that the consequences of neglect- 
ing these laws are the most serious visitations of suffering 
that can well be imagined. If the views advocated in this 
work be correct, the system on which the manufactures of 
Britain are at present conducted, is as great an aberration 
from the laws of nature as any recorded in the history of the 
world. It implies not only that the vast body of the people 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 211 

shall for ever remain in a condition little superior to that of 
mere working animals, in order that, by means of cheap 
labour, our traders may undersell the merchants of all other 
nations ; but also that our manufactures and commerce shall 
enjoy an indefinite extension — this being essential to their 
prosperity as they are now conducted, although in the nature 
of things impossible. On the 13th of May 1830, Mr. 
Slaney, M. P., called the attention of the House of Commons 
to " the increase which had taken place in the number of 
those employed in manufacturing and mechanical occupa- 
tions, as compared with the agricultural class." He stated, 
that u in England, the former, as compared with the latter, 
were 6 to 5 in 1801 ; they were as 8 to 5 in 1821 ; and, taking 
the increase of population to have proceeded in the same ratio, 
they were now as 2 to 1. In Scotland the increase had been 
still more extraordinary. In that country they were as 5 to 
6 in 18<H ; as 9 to 6 in 1821 ; and now they were as 2 to 1. 
The increase in the general population during the last twenty 
years kad been 30 per cent. ; in the manufacturing popu- 
lation it had been 40 per cent. ; in Manchester, Coventry, 
Liverpool, and Birmingham, the increase had been 50 per 
cent. ; in Leeds it had been 54 per cent. ; in Glasgow, it 
had been 100 per cent." Here we perceive that a vast 
population has been called into existence and trained to 
manufacturing industry. I do not doubt that the skill and 
labour of this portion of the people have greatly contributed 
to the wealth of the nation ; but I fear that the happiness of 
the laborious individuals who have conferred this boon, has 
not kept pace with the riches which they have created. 
The causes of this circumstance appear to be the follow- 
ing :— 

Several millions of human beings have been trained to 
manufactures, and are unfit for any other occupation. In 
consequence of the rapid increase of their numbers, and of 
vast improvements in machinery, the supply of labour has for 
many years outstripped the demand for it, and wages have 
fallen ruinously low. By a coincidence which at first sight 
appears unfortunate, much of the machinery of modern in- 
vention may be managed by children. The parent, who, by 
his own labour for twelve hours a-day, is able to earn on|y 
seven shillings a-week, adds to his income one shilling and 
sixpence or two shilling* a-week, for each child whom 



212 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

he can send to the manufactory ; and by^the united wage* 
of the family a moderate subsistence may be eked out. 
Both parents and children, however, are reduced to a hope- 
less condition of toil ; for their periods of labour are so long, 
and their remuneration is so small, that starvation stares each 
of them in the face when they either relax from exertion at 
cease to live in combination. Mental culture and moral 
and intellectual enjoyment are excluded, and their place is 
supplied by penury and labour. Dr. Chalmers reports, 
that in our great towns, whole masses of this class of the . 
people are living in profound ignorance and practical heath 
enism. The system tends constantly to increase the evils 
of which it is the course. Young persons, when they arrive 
at manhood, find themselves scarcely able to subsist by their 
individual exertions ; whereas, if they can add the scanty 
income of three or four children to their own, their condition 
js in some degree improved. House-rent, and the expenses 
of furniture and fuel, are not increased by the wants, in pro- 
portion to the contributions, of the young. Adults are thus 
tempted— nay, almost driven by necessity— -to contract early 
marriages, to rear a numerous offspring, devoted to the same 
employments with themselves, and in this way to add to the 
supply of labour, already in excess. The children grow up, 
and in their turn follow the same course ; and thus, however 
widely the manufactures of Britian may have extended, a still 
farther and indeed an indefinite extension of them seems to 
be demanded ; for the system produces a constantly increas- 
ing, yet ignorant, starving, and miserable population, more 
than adequate to supply all the labour that can be profitably 
expended. The consequence is, that markets are overstock- 
ed with produce ; prices first fall ruinously low ; the opera- 
tives are then thrown idle, and left in destitution, till the 
surplus produce of their formerly excessive labour, and per- 
haps something more, are consumed : after this, prices rise 
too high in consequence of the supply falling rather below 
the demand ; the labourers then resume their toil, on their 
former system of excessive exertion ; they again overstock 
the market, and are again thrown idle and suffer dreadful 
misery. 

In 1825-6-7, this operation cf the natural laws was strik- 
ingly exhibited ; large bodies of starving and unemployed 
labourers were supported on charity. How many hour* 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 213 

did they not stand idle, and how much of excessive toil 
would not these hours have relieved, if distributed over the 
periods when they were overworked ! The results of that 
excessive exertion were seen in the form of untenanted 
houses and of shapeless piles of goods decaying in ware- 
houses — in short, in every form in which misapplied indus- 
try could go to ruin. These observations are strikingly 
illustrated by the followiug official report. 

" State of the Unemployed Operatives resident in Edin- 
burgh, who are supplied with work by a Committee 
constituted for that purpose, according to a list made 
up on Wednesday the llth March, 1827. 

* The number of unemployed operatives who have been 
remitted by the Committee for work, up to the 14th of 
March, are 148 1 

" And the tiumber of cases they have rejected, after 
having been particularly investigated, for being bad 
characters, giving in false statements, or being on- 
ly a short timeout of work, dec. &c. are . . 446 

Making together, 1927 

" Besides these, several hundreds have been rejected by 
the Committee, -is, from the applicants own statements, 
they were not considered as cases entitled to receive relief, 
and were not, therefore, remitted for investigation. 

" The wages allowed is 5s. per week, with a peck of meal 
to those who have families. Some youths are only allowed 
3s. of wages. 

" The particular occupations of those sent to work are 
as follows: — 242 masons, 643 labourers, 66 joiners, 19 
plasterers, 76 sawyers, 19 slaters, 45 smiths, 40 painters, 
36 tailors, 55 shoemakers, 20 gardeners, 229 various trades. 
Total l481. ,, 

Edinburgh is not a manufacturing city ; and if so much 
misery existed in it in proportion to its population, what 
must have been the condition of Glasgow, Manchester, and 
other manufacturing towns 1 

Here, then, the Creator's laws show themselves para- 
mount even when men set themselves systematically to 



214 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

infringe them. He intended the human race, under the 
moral law, not to pursue Acquisitiveness excessively, but 
to labour only a certain and a moderate portion of theif 
lives ; and although they do their utmost to defeat this in- 
tention they cannot succeed : they are constrained to ro 
main idle, while their surplus produce is consuming as manv 
days and hours as would have served for the due exercis* 
of their moral and intellectual faculties, and the preservation 
of their health, if they had dedicated them regularly to these 
ends from day to day, as time passed over their heads. But 
their punishment proceeds : the extreme exhaustion of 
nervous and muscular energy, with the absence of all moral 
and intellectual excitement, create the irresistible craving 
for the stimulus of ardent spirits which distinguishes the 
labouring population of the present age ; this calls into 
predominant activity the organs of the animal propensities ; 
these descend to the children by the law already explained ; 
increased crime, and a deteriorating population, are the 
results ; and the moral and intellectual incapacity for ar- 
resting the evils becomes greater with the lapse of every 
generation. 

According to the principles of the present treatise, what 
are called by commercial men " times of prosperity," are 
seasons of the greatest infringement of the natural laws, 
and precursors of great calamities. Times are not reck- 
oned prosperous, unless all the industrious population is 
employed during the whole day, (hours of eating and sleep- 
ing only excepted), in the production of wealth. This is a 
dedication of their whole lives to the service of the propen- 
sities, and must necessarily terminate in punishment, if the 
world is constituted on the principle of supremacy of the 
higher powers. 

This truth has already been illustrated more than once 
in the history of commerce. The following is a recent 
example. 

By the combination laws, workmen were punishable for 
uniting to obtain a rise of wages, when an extraordinary 
demand occurred for their labour. These laws, being ob- 
viously unjust, were at length repealed. In the summer and 
autumn of 1825, however, commercial men conceived them- 
selves to have reached the highest point of prosperity, and 
the demand for labour was unlimited. The operative* 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORiT. LAW. 215 

availed themselves of the opportunity to better their condi- 
tion ; formed extensive combinations ; and, because their 
demands were not complied with, struck work, and con- 
tinued idle for months in succession. The master-manu- 
facturers clamoured against the new law, and complained 
that the country would be ruined, if combinations were not 
again declared illegal, and suppressed by force. Accord- 
ing to the principles expounded in this work, the just law 
must from the first have been the most beneficial for all 
parties affected by it ; and the result amply confirmed this 
idea. Subsequent events proved that the extraordinary 
demand for labourers in 1825 was entirely factitious, fos- 
tered by an overwhelming issue of bank paper, much of 
which ultimately turned out to be worthless ; in short, that, 
during the combinations, the master-manufacturers were 
engaged in an extensive system of speculative over-pro- 
duction, and that the combinations of the workmen pre- 
sented a natural check to this erroneous proceeding. The 
ruin that overtook the masters in 1826 arose from their 
having accumulated, under the influence of unbridled Ac- 
quisitiveness, vast stores of commodities which were not 
required by society ; and to have compelled the labourers, 
by force, to manufacture more at their bidding, would ob- 
viously have been to aggravate the evil. It is a well 
known fact, accordingly, that those masters whose opera- 
tives most resolutely refused to work, and who, on this 
account, clamoured most loudly against the law, were the 
greatest gainers in the end. Their stocks of goods were 
6old off at high prices during the speculative period : and 
when the revulsion came, instead of being ruined by the fall 
of property, they were prepared, with their capitals at com- 
mand to avail themselves of the depreciation, to make new 
and highly profitable investments. Here again, therefore, 
we perceive the law of justice vindicating itself, and benefit- 
ing by its operation even those individuals who blindly de- 
nounced it as injurious to their interests. A practical faith 
in the doctrine that the world is arranged by the Creator in 
harmony with the moral sentiments and intellect, would be 
of unspeakable advantage to both rulers and subjects ; for 
they would then be able to pursue with greater confidence 
the course dictated by moral rectitude, convinced that the 
result would prove beneficial, even although, when they took 



216 CALAMITIES ARISING FKOH 

the first step, they could not distinctly perceive by what 
means. Dugald Stewart remarks that Fenelon, in his Ad- 
ventures of Tclemachus, makes Mentor anticipate some of 
the proioundest and most valuable doctrines of modern 
political economy, respecting the principles and advantages 
of free trade, merely by causing him to utter the simple 
dictates of benevolence and justice in regard to commerce. 
In Fenelon's day, such ideas were regarded as fitted only 
for adorning sentimental novels or romances ; but they have 
since been discovered to be not only philosophical truths* 
but most beneficial practical maxims. This is the case 
apparently, because the world is really arranged on the prin- 
ciple of the supremacy of the moral and intellectual faculties, 
so that, when men act agreeably to their dictates, the con- 
sequences, although they cannot all be anticipated, naturally 
tend towards good. 

In the whole system of the education and treatment of 
the labouring population, the laws of the Creator, such as 
I have now endeavoured to expound them, are neglected or 
infringed. Life with them is spent to so great an extent 
in labour, that their moral and intellectual powers are stinted 
of exercise and gratification; and mental enjoyments are 
chiefly those afforded by the animal propensities : — in other 
words, their existence is too little rational ; they are rathe* 
organized machines than moral and intellectual beings* 
The chief duty performed by their higher faculties is not to 
afford predominant sources of enjoyment, but to communi- 
cate so much intelligence and honesty, as to enable them 
to execute their labours with fidelity and skill. I speak, of 
course, of the great body of the labouring population : there 
are many individual exceptions, who possess higher attain- 
ments ; and I mean no disrespect to any portion of this 
most useful and deserving class of society : on the contrary, 
I represent their condition in what appears to me to be a 
true light, only with a view to excite them to amend it. 

Does human nature, then, admit of such a modification of 
the employments and habits of this class, as to raise them to 
the condition of beings whose chief pleasures shall be derived 
from their rational natures 1 — that is, creatures whose bodily 
powers and animal propensities shall be subservient to 
their moral and intellectual faculties, and who shall derive 
their leading enjoyment from the latter. To attain this 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 217 

end, it would not be necessary that they should cease to la - 
bour ; on the contrary, the necessity of labour to the enjoy- 
ment of life is imprinted in strong characters on the struc- 
ture of man. The osseous, muscular, and nervous systems 
of the body, all require exercise as a condition of health ; 
while the digestive and sanguiferous apparatus rapidly fall 
into disorder, if due exertion is neglected. Exercise of the 
body is labour ; and labour directed to a useful purpose is 
more beneficial to the corporeal organs, and also more pleas- 
ing to the mind, than when undertaken for no end but the 
preservation of health.* Commerce is rendered advanta- 
geous by the Creator, because different climates yield differ- 
ent productions. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, 
therefore, are adapted to man's nature, and I am not their 
enemy. But they are not the ends of human existence, even 
on earth. Labour is beneficial to the whole human econo- 
my, and it is a mere delusion to regard it as in itself an evil ; 
but the great principle is, that it must be moderate in both 
severity and duration, in order that men may enjoy and not 
be oppressed by it. I say enjoy it ; because moderate exer- 
tion is pleasure, — and it is only labour carried to excess y 
which has given rise to the common opinion that retirement 
from active industry is the goal of happiness. It may be ob- 
jected that a healthy and vigorous man is not oppressed by 
ten or twelve hours' labour a-day ; and I grant that, if he be 
well fed, his physical strength may not be so much exhaust- 
ed by this exertion as to cause him pain. But this is regard- 
ing him merely as a working animal. My proposition is, 
that after ten or twelve hours of muscular exertion a-day, 
continued for six days in the week, the labourer is not in a 
fit condition for that active exercise of his moral and intellec- 
tual faculties which alone constitutes him a rational being. 
The exercise of these powers depends on the condition of 
the brain and nervous system ; and these are exhausted and 
deadened by too much muscular exertion. The fox-hunter 
and ploughman fall asleep when they sit within doors and 
attempt to read or think. The truth of this proposition is 
demonstrable on physiological principles, and is supported 
by general experience ; nevertheless, the teachers of man- 

* See Dr. Combe's Principles of Physiology, 3d edition, pp. 135 
19 



SIB CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

kind have too often neglected it. The first change, there* 
fore, must be to limit the hours of labour, and to dedicate a 
portion of time daily to the exercise of the mental faculties. 

So far from this limitation being unattainable, it appears 
to me that the progress of arts, sciences, and society, is 
rapidly forcing its adoption. Ordinary observers appear to 
conceive man's chief end, in Britain at least, to be to manu- 
facture hard-ware, broad cloth, and cotton goods, for the use 
of the whole world, and to store up wealth. They forget 
that the same impulse which inspires the British with so 
much ardour in manufacturing, will sooner or later inspire 
other nations also ; and that, if all Europe shall follow our 
example, and employ efficient machinery and a large pro- 
portion of their population in our branches of industry, 
which they are fast doing, the four quarters of the globe will 
at length be deluged with manufactured goods, only part of 
which will be required. When this state of things shall ar- 
rive, — and in proportion as knowledge and civilization are 
diffused it will approach, — men will be compelled by dire 
necessity to abridge their toil, because excessive labour will 
not be remunerated. The admirable inventions which are 
the boast and glory of civilized men, are believed by many 
persons to be at this moment adding to the misery and degra- 
dation of the people. Power-looms, steam-carriages, and 
steam- ships, it is asserted, have all hitherto operated direct- 
ly in increasing the hours of exertion, and abridging the re- 
ward of the labourer ! Can we believe that God has bestowed 
on us the gift of an almost creative power, solely to increase 
the wretchedness of the many, and minister to the luxury 
of the few 1 Impossible ! The ultimate effect of mechani- 
cal inventions on human society appears to be not yet divin- 
ed. I hail them as the grand instruments of civilization, by 
giving leisure to the great mass of the people to cultivate 
and enjoy their moral, intellectual, and religious powers. 

One requisite to enable man to follow pursuits connected 
with his higher endowments, is provision for the wants of 
his animal nature, viz. food, raiment, and comfortable lodg- 
ing. It is clear that muscular power, intellect, and me- 
chanical ability, have been conferred on him, with the design 
that he should build houses, plough fields, and fabricate com- 
modities. But assuredly we have no warrant from reason 
or revelation for believing that any portion of the people are 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 219 

bound to dedicate their whole lives and energies, aided by 
all mechanical discoveries, to these ends, as their proper 
business, to the neglect of the study of the works and will 
of the Creator. Has man been permitted to discover the 
steam-engine, and apply it in propelling ships on the ocean 
and carriages on railways, in spinning, weaving, and forging 
iron, — and has he been gifted with intellect to discover the 
astonishing powers of physical agents, such as are revealed 
by chemistry and mechanics, — only that he may be enabled 
to build more houses, weave more cloth, and forge more iron, 
without any direct regard to his moral and intellectual im- 
provement 1 If an individual, unaided by animal or mechan- 
ical power, had wished to travel from Manchester to 
Liverpool, a distance of thirty miles, he would have been 
under the necessity of devoting ten or twelve hours of his 
time, and considerable muscular energy, to the task. When 
roads and carriages were constructed, and horses trained, 
he could, by their assistance, have accomplished the same 
journey in four hours, with little fatigue ; and now, when 
railways and steam-engines have been successfully completed, 
he may travel that distance, without any bodily fatigue what- 
ever, in an hour and a half : and I ask, For what purpose 
has Providence bestowed the nine or ten hours, which are 
thus set free as spare time to the individual 1 I humbly 
answer — that he may be enabled to cultivate his moral, in- 
tellectual, and religious nature. Again, before steam-en- 
gines were applied to spinning and weaving, a human being 
would have-needed to labour, perhaps for a month, in order 
to produce linen, woolen, and cotton cloth, necessary to cover 
his own person for a year ; or, in case cf a division of la- 
bour, a twelfth part of the population would have required 
to be constantly engaged in this employment : by the appli- 
cation of steam, the same ends may be gained in a day. I 
repeat the inquiry — For what purpose has Providence be- 
stowed the twenty-nine days out of the month, set free by 
the invention of the steam-engine and machinery 1 These 
proportions are not stated as statistically correct, but as 
mere illustrations of my proposition, that every discovery in 
natural science, and invention in mechanics, has a direct ten- 
dency to increase the leisure of man, and to enable him to 
provide for his physical wants with less laborious exertion. 
The question recurs, — Whether is it the object of Provi- 



220 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

dence, in thus favouring the human race, to enable only a 
portion of them to enjoy the highest luxuries, while the mass 
shall continue labouring animals ; or is it his intention to en- 
able all to cultivate and enjoy their rational nature 1 

In proportion as mechanical inventions shall be generally 
diffused over the world, they will increase the powers of pro- 
duction to such an extent, as to supply, by moderate labour, 
every want of man ; and then the great body of the people 
will find themselves in possession of reasonable leisure, in 
spite of every exertion to avoid it. Great misery will pro- 
bably be suffered in preserving in the present course of ac- 
tion, before their eyes shall be opened to this result. The 
first effect of these stupendous mechanical inventions threat 
ens to be to accumulate great wealth in the hands of a few, 
without proportionally abridging the toil, or greatly adding 
to the comforts, of the many. This process of elevating a 
part of the community to affluence and power, and degrading 
the rest, threatens to proceed till the disparity of condition 
shall become intolerable to both, the labourer being utterly 
oppressed, and the higher classes harassed by insecurity. 
Then, probably, the ideas may occur, that the real benefit of 
physical discovery is to give leisure to the mass of the peo- 
ple, and that leisure for mental improvement is the first con- 
dition of true civilization, knowledge being the second. The 
science of human nature will enable men at length to profit 
by exemption from excessive toil ; and it may be hoped that, 
in course of time, the notion that man is really a rational 
creature, may meet with general countenance, and that sin- 
cere attempts may be made to render all ranks prosperous and 
happy, by institutions founded oil the basis of the superior 
faculties. 

The same means will lead to the realization of practical 
Christianity. An individual whose active existence is en- 
grossed by mere bodily labour, or by the pursuits of gain or 
ambition, lives under the predominance of faculties that do 
not produce the perfect Christian character. The true prac- 
tical Christian possesses a vigorous and enlightened intellect, 
and moral affections glowing with gratitude to God and love 
to man ; but how can the people at large be enabled to 
realize this condition of mind, if stimulus for the intellect 
and the nobler sentiments be excluded by the daily routine 
of their occupations t 



INFRINGEMENT OP THE MOftAL LA.W. 221 

In some districts of England, the operatives lately demand- 
ed an abridgment of labour without abatement of wages. 
This project was unjust, and proved unsuccessful. They 
ought to have given up first one hour's labour, and the price 
of it, and waited till the increase of capital and of demand 
brought up wages to their former rate, which, if they had 
restrained population, would certainly have happened* 
They ought to have then abated a second hour, submitting 
again to a reduction, and again waited for a reaction ; and 
so on, till they had limited their labour to eight or nine hours 
a-day. The change must be gradual, and the end must be 
obtained by moral means, else it will never be accomplished 
at all. 

The objection has been stated, that, even in the most im- 
proved condition of the great body of the people, there will 
still be a considerable proportion of them so deficient in tal- 
ent, so incapable of improvement, and so ignorant, that their 
labour will be worth little ; that, as they must obtain subsis- 
tence, no alternative will be left to them but to make up by 
protracted periods of exertion what they want in skill ; and 
that their long-continued labour, furnished at a cheap rate, 
will affect all the classes above them, and indeed prevent the 
views now taken from ever being generally realized. This 
objection resolves itself into the proposition, That the people 
have been destined by the Creator to be labouring animals, 
and that, from their inherent mental defects, they are inca- 
pable generally of being raised to any more honourable sta- 
tion ; which is just the great point at issue between the old 
and the new philosophy. If mankind at large (for the in- 
dustrious classes constitute so very great a majority of the 
race, that I may be allowed to speak of them as the whole) 
had been intended for mere hewers of wood and drawers of 
water, I do not believe that the moral and intellectual facul- 
ties which they unquestionably possess would have been 
bestowed on them ; and as they do enjoy the rudiments of 
all the feelings and capacities which adorn the highest of the 
race, and as these faculties themselves are improvable, I do 
not subscribe to the doctrine of the permanent incapacity of 
the race. I consider the operatives, in successive genera- 
tions, quite capable of learning to act as rational beings ; 
and that whenever the great majority of them shall have ac- 
quired a sense of the true dignity of their nature, and a 
19* 



222 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

relish for the enjoyments afforded by their higher capacities, 
they will become capable of so regulating the supply of labour 
in reference to the demand, as to obtain the means of sub- 
sistence in return for moderate exertion. In fine, I hope 
that few of the imbeciles alluded to in the objection will exist, 
and that these few will be directed and provided for by the 
multitude of generous and enlightened minds which will 
exist around them. 

At the same time, there is great force in the objection, 
considered in reference to the present and several succeed- 
ing generations. In throwing out these views, I embrace 
centuries of time. I see the slow progress of the human 
race in the past, and do not anticipate miracles in the future. 
If a sound principle is developed — one having its roots in 
nature — there is a certainty that it will wax strong and bear 
fruit in due season ; but that season, from the character of 
the plant, is a distant one. All who aim at benefiting man- 
kind ought to keep this truth constantly in view. Almost 
every scheme is judged of by its effects on the living gene- 
ration ; whereas no great fountain of happiness ever flowed 
clear at first or yielded its full sweets to the generation which 
discovered it. 

It is now an established principle in political economy, 
that Government ought not to interfere with industry. 
This maxim was highly necessary when governors were 
grossly ignorant of all the natural laws which regulate pro- 
duction and the private conduct of men ; because their 
enactments, in general, were then absurd — they often did 
much harm, and rarely good. *• Men," says Lord Karnes, 
in reference to the English poor law, "will always be 
mending : What a confused jumble do they make, when 
they attempt to mend the laws of Nature ! Leave Nature to 
her own operations ; she understands them the best."* But 
if the science of human nature were once fully and clearly 
developed, it k probable that this rule might, with great 
advantage, be relaxed, and that the legislature might con 
eiderably accelerate improvements, by adding the constrain- 
ing authority of human laws to enactments already pro 
claimed by the Creator. Natural laws do exist, and the 
Creator punishes if they are not obeyed. The evils of life 

♦Sketches, B, ii. Sk. 10, 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 223 

are these punishments. Now, if the great body of intelli- 
gent men in any state saw clearly that a course of action 
pursued by the ill-informed of their fellow-subjects was the 
source of continual suffering, not only to the evil-doers 
themselves, but to the whole community, it appears to me 
allowable that they should stop its continuance by legislative 
enactment. If the majority of the middle classes resident 
in towns were to petition Parliament, at present, to order 
shops in general to be shut at eight o'clock, or even at an 
earlier hour, so as to allow time for the cultivation of the 
rational faculties of the men and women engaged in them, 
it would be no stretch of power, to give effect to the petition : 
that is to say, no evil would ensue, although the ignorant 
and avaricious were prevented by law from continuing 
ignorant, and forcing all their competitors in trade to re- 
semble them in their defects. If the Creator have so con- 
stituted the world that men may execute all necessary 
business, and still have time to spare for the cultivation of 
their rational faculties, any enactment of the legislature 
calculated to facilitate arrangement for accomplishing both 
ends would be beneficial and successful, because it was in 
accordance with nature ; although the prejudiced and 
ignorant of the present generation would complain, and 
probably resist it. This principle of interference would go 
much farther ; its only limits seem to me to be the bound- 
aries of the real knowledge of nature : as long as the legis- 
lature enacts in conformity with nature, the result will be 
successful. At present, ignorance is too extensive and 
prevalent to authorize Parliament to venture far. From 
indications which already appear, however, I think it pro- 
bable that the labouring clases will ere long recognise 
Phrenology, and the natural laws, as deeply interesting to 
themselves ; and whenever their minds shall be opened to 
rational views of their own constitution as men, and their 
condition as members of society, I venture to predict that 
they will devote themselves to improvement, with a zeal 
and earnestness that in a few generations will change the 
aspect of their class. 

The consequences of the present system of departing 
from the moral law, on the middle orders of the community, 
are in accordance with its effects on the lower. Uncertain 
g^ins, — continual fluctuations in fortune, — the absence of 



224 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

all reliance, in their pursuits, on moral and intellectual 
principles, — a gambling spirit, — an insatiable appetite for 
wealth, — alternate extravagant joys of excessive prosperity 
and bitter miseries of disappointed ambition, — render the 
lives of manufacturers and merchants, to too great an ex- 
tent, scenes of mere vanity and vexation of spirit. As the 
chief occupations of the British nation, manufactures and 
commerce are disowned by reason ; for, as now conducted, 
they imply the permanent degradation of the great mass of 
the people. They already constitute England's weakness : 
and, unless they shall be regulated by sounder views than 
those which at present prevail, they will involve their popu- 
lation in unspeakable misery. The oscillations of fortune, 
which almost the whole of the middle ranks of Britain ex- 
perience, in consequence of the alternate depression and 
elevation of commerce and manufactures, are attended 
with extensive and severe individual suffering. Deep 
though often silent agonies pierce the heart, when ruin is 
seen stealing, by slow but certain steps, on a young and 
helpless family ; the mental struggle often undermines the 
parent's health, and conducts him prematurely to the grave. 
No death can be imagined more painful than that which 
arises from a broken spirit, robbed of its treasures, disap- 
pointed in its ambition, and conscious of' failure in the 
whole scheme of life. The best affections of the soul are 
lacerated and agonized at the prospect of leaving their 
dearest objects to struggle, without provision, in a cold and 
selfish worid. Thousands of the middle ranks in Britain 
unfortunately experience these miseries in every passing 
year. Nothing is more essential to human happiness than 
fixed principles of action, on which we can rely for our pre- 
sent safety and future welfare ; and the Creator's laws, 
when seen and followed, afford this support and delight to 
our faculties in the highest degree. It is one, not the least, 
of the punishments that overtake the middle elasses for 
neglect of these laws, that they do not, as a permanent con- 
dition of mind, feel secure and internally at peace with 
themselves. In days of prosperity, they continue to fear 
adversity They live in a constant struggle with fortune ; 
and when the excitement of business has subsided, vacuity 
and craving are felt within. These proceed from the moral 
and intellectual faculties calling aloud for exercise ; but, 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 225 

through ignorance of human nature, either pure idleness, 
gossiping conversation, fashionable amusements, or intoxi- 
cating liquors, are resorted to, and with these a vain attempt 
is made to fill up the void of life. I know that this class 
ardently desires a change that would remove the miseries 
here described, and will zealously co-operate in diffusing 
knowledge, by means of which alone it can be introduced. 
The punishment which overtakes the higher classes is 
equally obvious. If they do not engage in some active 
pursuit, so as to give scope to their energies, they suffer 
the evils of ennui, morbid irritability, and excessive relax- 
ation of the functions of mind and body ; which carry in 
their train more suffering than even that which is entailed 
on the operatives by excessive labour. If they pursue am- 
bition in the senate or the field, in literature or philosophy, 
their real success is in exact proportion to the approach 
which they make to observance of the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments and intellect. Sully, Franklin, and Wash- 
ington may be contrasted with Sheridan and Buonaparte, as 
illustrations. Sheridan and Napoleon did not, systemati- 
cally, pursue objects sanctioned by the higher sentiments 
and intellect, as the end of their exertions ; and no person 
who is a judge of human emotions can read the history of 
their lives, and consider what must have passed within their 
minds, without corning to the conclusion, that even in their 
most brilliant moments of external prosperity the canker 
was gnawing within, and that there was no moral relish of 
the present, or reliance on the future, but a mingled tumult 
of inferior propensities and intellect, carrying with it an 
habitual feeling of unsatisfied desires. 

Let us now consider the effect of the moral law on nation- 
al prosperity. 

If the Creator has constituted the world in harmony with 
the dictates of the moral sentiments, the highest prosperity 
of each particular nation should be thoroughly compatible 
with that of every other : that is to say, England, by sedu- 
lously cultivating her own soil, pursuing her own courses of 
industry, founding her internal institutions and her exter- 
nal relations on the principles of Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Justice, which imply abstinence from wars of aggres- 
sion, from conquest, and from all selfish designs of commer- 



226 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

cial monopoly, — would be in the highest condition of pros- 
perity and enjoyment that nature admits of ; and every step 
that she deviated from these principles, would carry an in- 
evitable punishment along with it. The same statement 
may be made relative to France and every other nation. 
According to this principle, also, the Creator should have 
conferred on each nation such peculiar advantages of soil, 
climate, situation, or genius, as would enable it to carry on 
amicable intercourse with its fellow states, in a beneficial 
exchange of the products peculiar to each ; so that the 
higher one nation rose in morality, intelligence, and riches, 
so much the more estimable and valuable it ought to become 
as" a neighbour to all the surrounding states. This is so 
obviously the real constitution of nature, that proof of it 
would be superfluous. 

England, however, as a nation, has set this law at abso- 
lute defiance. She has led the way in taking the propen- 
sities as her guides, in founding her laws and institutions 
on them, and in following them out in her practical conduct. 
England placed restrictions on trade, and carried them to 
the greatest height ; she conquered colonies, and ruled 
them in the full spirit of selfishness she encouraged lotte- 
ries, fostered the slave-trade, and carried paper money and 
the most avaricious spirit of manufacturing and speculating 
in commerce to their highest pitch ; she defended corrup 
tion in Parliament, and distributed churches and seats on 
the bench of justice, on principles purely selfish ; all in 
direct opposition to the supremacy of the moral law. If 
the world had been created in harmony with the predomi- 
nance of the animal faculties, England would have been a 
most felicitous nation ; but as the reverse is the case, it 
was natural that a severe national retribution should follow 
these departures from the Divine institutions, — and grievous 
accordingly has been, and, I fear, will be, the punishment. 

The principle which regulates national chastisement is, 
that the precise combination of faculties which leads to the 
transgression, carries in its train the punishment. Nations 
are under the moral and intellectual law, as well as indivi- 
duals. A carter who half starves his horse, and unmerci- 
fully beats it, to supply, by the stimulus of pain, the vigour 
that nature intended to flow from abundance of food, may 
be supposed to practise this barbarity with impunity in this 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 527 

world, if he evade the eye of the police ; but this is not 
the case. The hand of Providence reaches him by a direct 
punishment : he fails in his object : for blows cannot sup- 
ply the vigour which, by the constitution of the horse, will 
flow only from sufficiency of wholesome food. In his con- 
duct, he manifests excessive Acquisitiveness and Destruc- 
tiveness, with deficient Benevolence, Veneration, Justice, 
and Intellect ; and he cannot reverse this character, by 
merely averting his eyes and his hand from the horse. He 
carries these dispositions into the bosom of his family and 
into the company of his associates, and a variety of evil 
consequences ensue. The delights that spring from active 
moral sentiments and intellectual powers, are necessarily 
unknown to him ; and the difference between these plea- 
sures, and the sensations attendant on his moral and intel- 
lectual condition, are as great as between the external splen- 
dour of a king and the naked poverty of a beggar. It is 
true that he has never felt the enjoyment, and does not 
know the extent of his loss ; but still the difference exists ; 
we see it, and know that, as a direct consequence of this 
state of mind, he is excluded from a very great and exalted 
pleasure. Farther, his active animal faculties rouse the 
Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, Secretive- 
ness, and Cautiousness, of his wife, children, and associates, 
against him, and they inflict on him animal punishment. 
He, no doubt, goes on to eat, drink, blaspheme, and abuse 
his horse, day after day, apparently as if Providence ap- 
proved of his conduct ; but he neither feels, nor can any 
one who attends to his condition believe him to feel, happy : 
he is uneasy, discontented, and conscious of being disliked 
— all which sensations are his punishment ; and it is owing 
solely to his own grossness and ignorance that he does 
not connect it with his offence. Let us apply these re- 
marks to nations. 

England, under the impulses of excessively strong Ac- 
quisitiveness, Self-Esteem, and Destructiveness, for a long 
time protected the slave-trade. During the periods of 
greatest sin in this respect, the same combination of facul- 
ties ought, according to the law which I am explaining, to 
be found working most vigorously in her other institutions, 
and producing punishment for that offence. There ought 
to be found in these periods a general spirit of domineering 



228 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

and rapacity in her public men, rendering them little mind- 
ful of the welfare of the people ; injustice and harshness in 
her taxations and public laws ; and a spirit of aggression 
and hostilities towards other nations, provoking retaliation 
of her insults. And accordingly I have been informed, as a 
matter of fact, that while these measures of injustice were 
publicly patronised by the government, its servants vied 
with each other in injustice towards it, and its subjects de- 
dicated their talents and enterprise towards corrupting its 
officers, and cheating it of its due. Every trader who was 
liable to excise or custom duties evaded the one-half of 
them, and did not feel that there was any disgrace in doing 
so. A gentleman, who was subject to the excise-laws fifty 
years ago, described to me the condition of his trade at that 
time. The excise-officers, he said, regarded it as an under- 
stood matter, that at least one-half of the goods manufac- 
tured were to be smuggled without being charged with 
duty ; but then, said he, " they made us pay a moral and 
pecuniary penalty that was at once galling and debasing. 
We were constrained to ask them to our table at all meals, 
and place them at the head of it in our holiday parties : 
when they fell into debt, we were obliged to help them out 
of it ; when they moved from one house to another, our 
servants and carts were in requisition to transport their ef- 
fects. By way of keeping up discipline upon us, and also 
to make a show of duty, they chose every now and then to 
step in and detect us in a fraud, and get us fined : if we 
submitted quietly, they told us that they would make us 
amends by winking at another fraud, and they generally did 
so ; but if our indignation rendered passive obedience im- 
possible, and we gave utterance to our opinion of their cha- 
racter and conduct, they enforced the law on us, while they 
relaxed it on our neighbours ; and these, being rivals in 
trade, undersold us in the market, carried away our cus- 
tomers, and ruined our business. Nor did the bondage end 
here. We could not smuggle without the aid of our ser- 
vants ; and as they could, on occasion of any offence given 
to themselves, carry information to the head quarters of 
excise, we were slaves to them also, and were obliged tame- 
ly to submit to a degree of drunkenness and insolence that 
appears to me now perfectly intolerable. Farther, this eva- 
sion and oppression did us no good ; for all the trade were 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 229 

alike, and we just sold our goods so much the cheaper the 
more duty we evaded : so that our individual success did 
not depend upon superior skill and superior morality, in 
making an excellent article at a moderate price, but upon 
superior capacity for fraud, meanness, sycophancy, and 
every possible baseness. Our lives were any thing but en- 
viable. Conscience, although greatly blunted by practices 
that were universal and viewed as inevitable, still whisper- 
ed that they were wrong ; our self-respect very frequently 
revolted at the insults to which we were exposed ; and 
there was a constant feeling of insecurity from the great 
extent to which we were dependent upon wretches whom 
we internally despised When the government took a 
higher tone, and more principle and greater strictness in the 
collection of the duties were enforced, we thought ourselves 
ruined. The reverse, however, has been the case. The 
duties, no doubt, are now excessively burdensome from 
their amount ; but that is their least evil. Were it possible 
to collect them from every trader with perfect equality, our 
independence would be complete, and our competition would 
be confined to superiority in morality and skill. Matters 
are much nearer this point now than they were fifty years 
ago ; but still they would admit of considerable improve- 
ment." The same individual mentioned, that, in his youth, 
now seventy years ago, the civil liberty of the people of 
Scotland was held by a weak tenure. About 1760, he knew 
instances of soldiers being sent, in time of war, to the farm- 
houses, to carry off, by force, young men for the army : as 
this was against the law, they were accused of some ima- 
ginary offence, such as a trespass or an assault, wnich was 
proved by false witnesses ; and the magistrate, perfectly 
aware of the farce and its object, threatened the victim with 
transportation to the colonies, as a felon, if he would not 
enlist — which, unprotected and overwhelmed by power 
and injustice, he was of course compelled to do. 

If the same minute representation were given of other 
departments of private life, during the time of the greatest 
immoralities on the part of government, we would find that 
this paltering with conscience and character in the national 
proceedings, tended to keep down the morality of the peo- 
ple, and fostered in them a rapacious and gambling spirit, to 



230 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

which many of the evils that have since overtaken us hava 
owed their origin. 

But we may take a more extensive view of the subject of 
national responsibility. 

In the American war Britain desired to gratify her Ac- 
quisitiveness and Self-Esteem, in opposition to Benevolence 
and Justice, at the expense of her transatlantic colonies. 
This roused the animal resentment of the latter, and the 
propensities of the two nations came into collision ; that is 
to say, they made war on each other — Britain, to support a 
dominion in direct hostility to the principles which regulate 
the moral government of the world, in the expectation of be- 
coming rich and powerful by success in that enterprise ; the 
Americans, to assert the supremacy of the higher sentiments 
and to become free and independent. According to the prin- 
ciples which I am now unfolding, the greatest misfortune 
that could have befallen Britain would have been success, 
and the greatest advantage, failure in her attempt ; and the 
result is now acknowledged to be in exact accordance with 
this view. If Britain had subdued the colonies in the Ame- 
rican war, every one must see to what an extent her Self- 
Esteem, Acquisitiveness, and Destructiveness, would have 
been let loose upon them. This, in the first place, would 
have roused the animal faculties of the conquered party, and 
led them to give her all the annoyance in their power ; and 
the expense of the fleets and armies requisite to repress this 
spirit, would have far counterbalanced all the profits she 
could have wrung out of the colonists by extortion and op- 
pression. In the second place, the very exercise of these 
animal faculties by herself, in opposition to the moral sen- 
timents, would have rendered her government at home an 
exact parallel of that of the carter in his own family. The 
same malevolent principles would have overflowed on her 
own subjects : the government would have felt uneasy, and 
the people rebellious, discontented, and unhappy ; and the 
moral law would have been amply vindicated by the suffer- 
ing which would have every where abounded. The conse- 
quences of her failure have been the reverse. America has 
sprung up into a great and moral nation, and actually con- 
tributes ten times more to the wealth of Britain, standing 
as she now does in her natural relation to this country, than 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 231 

she ever could have done as a discontented and oppressed 
colony. This advantage is reaped without any loss, anxi- 
ety, or expense ; it flows from the divine institutions, and 
both nations profit by and rejoice under it. The moral and 
intellectual rivalry of America, instead of prolonging the as- 
cendency of the propensities in Britain, tends strongly to 
excite the mora£ sentiments in her people and government ; 
and every day that we live, we are reaping the benefits of 
this improvement in wiser institutions, deliverance from 
endless abuses, and a higher and purer spirit pervading 
every department of the executive administration of the 
country. Britain, however, did not escape the penalty of 
her attempt at the infringement of the moral laws. The 
pages of her history, during the American war, are dark 
with suffering and gloom, and at this day we groan under 
the debt and difficulties then partly incurred. 

If the world be constituted on the principle of the supre- 
macy of the moral sentiments and intellect, the practice of 
one nation seeking riches and power, by conquering, devas- 
tating, or obstructing the prosperity of another, must be 
essentially futile : Being in opposition to the moral consti- 
tution of creation, it must occasion misery while in pro- 
gress, and can lead to no result except the impoverishment 
and mortification of the people who pursue it. It is nar- 
rated that Themistocles told the Athenians that he had con- 
ceived a project which would be of the greatest advantage 
to Athens, but that the profoundest secrecy was necessary 
to insure its success. They desired him to communicate it 
to Aristides, and promised, if he approved, to execute it. 
Themistocles took Aristides ^side, and told him that he pro- 
posed, unawares, to burn the ships of the Spartans, then in 
profound peace with the Athenian state and not expecting 
an attack ; which would very much weaken the Spartan 
power. Aristides reported, that nothing could be more 
advantageous, but nothing more unjust, than the project in 
view. The people refused to hear or to execute it.* Here 
the intellect of Aristides appears to have viewed the execu- 
tion of the scheme as beneficial, while his sentiment of 
Conscientiousness distinctly denounced it as morally wrong; 
and the question is, Whether external nature is so consti- 

• Cicero de Officiis, lib. iiL 



3*32 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

luted, that the intellect can, in any case, possess sufficient 
data for inferring actual benefit from conduct which is dis- 
owned and denounced by the moral sentiments 1 It appears 
to me that it cannot. Let us trace the project of Themis- 
tocles to its results. 

The inhabitants of Sparta possessed the faculties of Self- 
Esteem, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Intellect, Bene- 
volence, and Conscientiousness. The proposed destruction 
of their ships, in time of profound peace, would have out- 
raged the higher sentiments and intellect, and these would 
have kindled Combativeness and Destructiveness into the 
most intense activity. The greater the injustice of the act, 
the fiercer would the flame of opposition, retaliation, and 
revenge have glowed ; and not only so, but the more grossly 
and wantonly the moral sentiments were outraged by the 
act, the higher would have been the class of minds which 
would have instinctively burned with the desire of revenge. 
The Athenians, then, by the very constitution of nature, 
would have been assailed by this fearful storm of moral in- 
dignation and animal resentment, rendered doubly terrible 
by the most virtuous and intelligent being converted into 
the most determined of their opponents. Turning to their 
own state again, — only those individuals among themselves 
in whom intellect and moral sentiment were inferior to Ac- 
quisitiveness and Self-Esteem, which give rise to selfish- 
ness and the lust of power, could have cordially approved 
of the deed. The virtuous would have turned from the 
contemplation of it with shame and sorrow ; and thus both 
the character and number of the defenders would have been 
diminished in the very ratio of the atrocity of the crime, 
while the power of the assailants, as we have seen, would, 
by that very circumstance, have been proportionally in- 
creased. It was impossible, therefore, that advantage to 
Athens could ultimately have resulted from such a flagrant 
act of iniquity ; and the apparent opposition, in the judg- 
ment of Aristides, between the justice of the deed and the 
benefits to be expected from it, arose from his intellect not 
being sufficiently profound and comprehensive to grasp the 
whole springs which the enterprise would call into action, 
and to trace out the ultimate results. In point of fact, there 
would have been no opposition between the dictates of Con* 
scientiousness, and those of an intellect that could accu* 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 233 

fately survey the whole causes and effects which the unjust 
enterprise would have set in motion — but quite the reverse ; 
and the Athenians, in following the suggestions of the moral 
sentiment, actually adopted the most advantageous course 
which it was possible for them to pursue. The trite obser- 
vation, that honesty is the best policy, thus becomes a pro- 
found philosophical maxim, when traced to its foundation 
in the constitution of human nature. 

The national debt of Britain has been contracted chiefly 
in wars, originating in commercial jealousy and thirst for 
conquest ; in short, under the suggestions of Combative- 
ness, Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self-Esteem.* 
Did not our ancestors, therefore, impede their own pros- 
perity and happiness, by engaging in these contests 1 and 
have any consequences of them reached us, except the bur- 
den of paying nearly thirty millions of taxes annually, as 
the price of the gratification of the propensities of our igno- 
rant forefathers 1 Would a statesman, who believed in the 
doctrines maintained in this work, have recommended these 

* Of 127 years, terminating in 1815, England spent 65 in war 
and 62 in peace. The war of 1688, after lasting nine years, and 
raising our expenditure in that period 36 millions, was ended by 
the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. Then came the war of the 
Spanish succession, which began in 1702, concluded in 1713, 
and absorbed 62£ millions of our money. Next was the Spanish 
war of 1739, settled finally at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, after cost- 
ing us nearly 54 millions. Then came the seven years' war of 
1756, which terminated with the treaty of Paris in 1763, and in 
course of which we spent 112 millions. The next was the Ame- 
rican war of 1775, which lasted eight years. Our national 
expenditure in this war was 136 millions. The French Revolu- 
tionary war began in 1793, lasted nine years, and exhibited an 
expenditure of 464 millions. The war against Buonaparte began 
in 1803, and ended in 1815 : during these- twelve years, we spent 
1159 millions, 771 of which were raised by taxes, and 388 by 
loans. In the revolutionary war we borrowed 201 millions ; in 
the American, 104 millions ; in the seven years' war, 60 millions : 
in the Spanish war of 1739, 29 millions ; in the war of the Span- 
ish succession, 32£ millions ; in the war of 1688, 20 millions. 
Total borrowed in the seven wars during 65 years, aoout 834 
millions. In the same time, we raised by taxes 1189 millions ; 
thus forming a total expenditure on war of two thousand and 

TWENTY-THREE MILLIONS OF POUNDS STERLING. — Weekly Rc^ 



834 CALAMITIES ARISING PROM 

wars as essential to national prosperity ? If the twentieth 
part of the sums had been spent in effecting objects recog- 
nised by the moral sentiments — in instituting, for example, 
seminaries of education and penitentiaries, and in making 
roads, canals, and public granaries — how different would 
have been the present condition of the country ! 

After the American followed the French revolutionary 
war. Opinions are at present more divided upon this sub- 
ject ; but my view of it, offered with the greatest deference 
is the following. When the French Revolution broke out, 
the domestic institutions of Britain were, to a considerable 
extent, founded and administered on principles in opposi- 
tion to the supremacy of the moral sentiments. A clamour 
was raised by the nation for reform of abuses. If my lead- 
ing principle be sound, every departure from the moral law, 
in nations as well as individuals, carries its punishment 
with it, from the hour of its commencement till its final 
cessation ; and if Britain's institutions were then, to any 
extent, corrupt and defective, she could not have too 
speedily abandoned them, and adopted purer and loftier 
arrangements. Her government, however, clung to the 
suggestions of the propensities, and resisted every innova- 
tion. To divert the national mind from causing a revo- 
lution at home, they embarked in a war abroad ; and, for a 
period of twenty-three years, let loose the propensities on 
France with headstrong fury and a fearful perseverance. 
France, no doubt, threatened the different nations of Europe 
with the most violent interference with tkeir governments ; 
a menace wholly unjustifiable and one which called for re- 
sistance. But the rulers of that country were preparing 
their own destruction, in exact proportion to their departure 
from the moral law ; and a statesman, who knew and had 
confidence in the constitution of the world as now explained, 
could have listened to the storm with perfect composure, 
prepared to repel actual aggression ; and could have left 
the exploding of French infatuation to the Ruler of the 
Universe, in unhesitating reliance on the efficacy of His laws. 
Britain preferred a war ef aggression. If this conduct was 
in accordance with the dictates of the higher sentiments, 
we should now, like America, be reaping the reward of our 
obedience to the moral law, and plenty and rejoicing should 
Sow down our streets liko a stream. But mark the contrast. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 235 

This island exhibits the spectacle of millions of men toiling 
•o the extremity of human endurance, for a pittance scarcely 
sufficient to sustain life ; weavers labouring for fourteen or 
sixteen hours a-day for eight pence, and frequently unable 
to procure work even on these terms ; other artisans, ex- 
hausted almost to death by laborious drudgery, and who, if 
better recompensed, seek compensation and enjoyment in 
the grossest sensual debauchery, drunkenness, and gluttony ; 
master-traders and manufacturers anxiously labouring for 
wealth, now gay in the fond hope that ail their expectations 
will be realised, then sunk in despair by the ploughshare 
» of ruin having passed over them ; landholders and tenants 
now reaping unmeasured returns from their properties, 
then pining in penury amidst an overflow of every species 
of produce ; the government cramped by an overwhelming 
debt and the prevalence of ignorance and selfishness on 
every side, so that it is impossible for it to follow with a 
bold step the most obvious dictates of reason and justice, by 
reason of the countless prejudices and imaginary interests 
which every where obstruct the path of improvement. 
This much more resembles punishment for transgression, 
than reward for obedience to the Divine laws. 

If every man in Britain will turn his attention inwards, 
and reckon the pangs of disappointment which he has felt 
at the subversion of his own most darling schemes by un- 
expected turns of public events, or the deep inroads on his 
happiness which such misfortunes, overtaking his dearest 
relations and friends, have occasioned to him ; the number- 
less little enjoyments in domestic life, which he is forced to 
deny himself, in consequence of the taxation with which 
they are loaded ; the obstructions to the fair exercise of his 
industry and talents, presented by stamps, licences, excise 
laws, custom-house duties, et hoc genus omne ; he will dis- 
cover the extent of responsibility attached by the Creator to 
national transgressions. From my own observation, I 
would say, that the miseries inflicted upon individuals and 
families, by fiscal prosecutions, founded on excise laws, 
stamp laws, post-ofnee laws, &c, all originating in the ne- 
cessity of providing for the national debt, are equal to those 
arising from some of the most extensive natural calamities. 
It is true, that few persons are prosecuted without having 
offended ; but the evil consists in presenting men with enor- 



836 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

mous temptations to infringe mere financial regulations, not 
always in accordance with natural morality, and then in- 
flicting ruinous penalties for transgression. Men have 
hitherto expected the punishment of their offences in the 
thunderbolt or the yawning earthquake, and have believed, 
that because the sea did not swallow them up, or the moun- 
tains fall upon them and crush them to atoms, heaven was 
taking no cognizance of their sins ; while, in point of fact, 
an omnipotent, an all-just, and an all-wise God, had ar- 
ranged, before they erred, an ample retribution in the very 
consequences of their transgressions. It is by looking to 
the principles in the mind, from which transgressions flow, 
and attending to their whole operations and results, that we 
discover the real theory of the Divine government. When 
men shall be instructed in the laws of creation, they will 
discriminate more accurately than heretofore between na- 
tural and factitious evils, and become less tolerant of the 
latter. 

Since the foregoing observations were written, the great 
measure of Parliamentary Reform has been carried into ef- 
fect in Britian and Ireland, and already considerable pro- 
gress has been made in rectifying our national institutions. 
For the first time in the annals of the world, a nation has 
voluntarily contributed a large sum of money for the ad- 
vancement of pure benevolence and justice. We have 
agreed to pay twenty millions sterling for the freedom of 
800,000 human beings, whom our unprincipled forefathers 
had led into hopeless slavery. Sinecures have been abol- 
ished, monopolies destroyed, unmerited pensions checked, 
and taxation lightened ; and there is a spirit abroad which 
demands the reform of all other abuses in church and state. 
The high gratification which I experience in contemplating 
these changes, arises from the perception that they have all 
the tendency to place the institutions of the country, and 
the administration of them, in harmony with the dictates of 
reason and the moral sentiments ; the effect of which will 
infallibly be, not only to increase the physical enjoyments, 
but greatly to advance the moral, intellectual, and religious 
condition, of the people. Example is the most powerful 
means of instruction, and it was in vain for a priesthood 
allied to the state to preach truth, justice, and benevolence 
io the people, while force, oppression, and many other 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 237 

species of abuse, were practised by our rulers and the church 
itself. No more effectual means of purifying the hearts of 
the people can be devised, than that of purifying all public 
institutions, and exhibiting justice and kindly affection as 
the animating motives of public men and national measures. 

Of all national enormities, that of legalising the purchase 
of human beings, and conducting them into slavery, is pro- 
bably the most atrocious and disgraceful ; and Britain was 
was long chargeable with this iniquity. The callous inhu- 
manity, the intense selfishness, and the utter disregard of 
justice, implied in the practice, must have overflowed in 
numerous evils on the people of Britain themselves. In- 
deed, the state of wretched destitution in which the Irish 
peasantry are allowed to remain, and the unheeded increase 
of ignorance, poverty, and toil, in the manufacturing districts, 
appears to be legitimate fruits of the same spirit which 
patronized slavery ; and these probably are preparing pun- 
ishment for the nation, if repentance shall not speedily ap- 
pear. Slavery, however, has now been abolished by Britain, 
and I hail this as the first step in a glorious career of moral 
legislation. The North Americans have been left behind 
by England, for once, in the march of Christian practice. 
In the United States, Negro slavery continues to deface the 
moral brightness of her legislative page ; and on no subject 
does prejudice appear to be so inveterately powerful in that 
country as on slavery. Greatly as I respect the character 
of the Americans, it is impossible to approve of their treat- 
ment of the Negro population. The ancestors of the pre- 
sent American people stole, or acquired by an unprincipled 
purchase, the ancestors of the existing Negroes, and doomed 
them to a degrading bondage. This act was utterly at 
variance with the dictates of the moral sentiments, and of 
Christianity. Their posterity have retained the blacks in 
thraldom, treated them with contumely, and at this day re- 
gard them as scarcely human beings. This also is a griev- 
ous transgression of the natural and revealed law of moral 
duty. Evil and suffering must flow from these transgres- 
sions to the American people themselves, if a just God 
really governs the world. 

The argument that the Negroes are incapable of civiliza- 
tion and freedom, is prematurely urged, and not relevant 
although it were based upon fact. The Negro head pre- 



238 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

sents great varieties of moral and intellectual development, 
and I have seen several which appeared fully equal to the 
discharge of the ordinary duties of civilized men. But the 
race has never received justice from its European and 
American masters; and until its treatment shall have be- 
come moral, its capabilities cannot be fairly estimated, and 
the judgment against it is therefore premature.* But, 
whatever be the capabilities of the Negroes, it was a hein- 
ous moral transgression to transport them, by violent means, 
from the region where they had been placed by a wise and 
benevolent God, and to plant them in a new soil, and amidst 
institutions, for which they were never intended ; and the 
punishment of this offence will rather be aggravated than 
averted, by losing sight of the source of the transgression, 
and charging the consequences of it on the Negroes, as if 
they were to blame for their alleged incapacity to glide 
gracefully into the ranks of American civilization. The Ne- 
groes must either be improved by culture and intermarriage 
with the white race, or retransferred to their native climate, 
before America can escape from the hands of divine justice. 
I am not sufficiently acquainted with the details of American 
social life, to be able to point out the practical form in 

* The reader will find, in the 46th number of Chamber's Edin 
burgh Journal (15th Dec. 1832), a very interesting account of a 
Negro of high moral and intellectual qualities, who lived for a con 
siderable time near Hawick. Another Negro, called Eustache, 
of whose head there is a cast in the Phrenological Society's col- 
lection, displayed a degree of shrewdness and disinterested 
benevolence very rare even in Europe ; and his head, while it 
presents an excllent anterior development, is more prominent at 
the organs of Benevolence than any other head which has fallen 
under my observation. An account of Eustache will be found in 
the Phrenological Journal, vo. ix. p. 134, and Journal le la So- 
cieth Phr'enologique de Paris, April 1835. Mr. Lawrence has 
collected, in the eighth chapter of his admirable Lectures on 
Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, a great 
variety of facts tending to prove that the Negroes, though moral- 
ly and intellectually inferior to the white race, are by no means 
near the bottom of the scale of humanity ; and he expresses the 
well-grounded opinion, " that of the dark-coloured people none 
have distinguished themselves by stronger proofs of capacity for 
literary and scientific investigation, and, consequently, that none 
appioach more nearly than the Negro to the polished nations of 
the globe." 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 239 

which the punishment is inflicted ; but if there be truth in 
the principles now expounded, no doubt can be entertained 
of its existence. 

The alternative of incorporating the Negroes, by inter- 
marriage, with the European race, appears revolting to the 
feelings of the latter ; while they also declare it to be im- 
possible to transport the blacks to Africa, on account of 
their overwhelming numbers. There is much force in both 
of these objections, but the following considerations have 
still greater weight : — the white race is exclusively to blame 
for the origin of the evil, and for all its consequences ; the 
natural laws never relax in their operation ; and hence the 
existing evils will go on augmenting until a remedy be 
adopted, and this will become more painful the longer it is 
delayed. If the present state of things shall be continued 
for a century, it is probable that it will end in a war of ex- 
termination between the black and the white population, or 
in an attempt by the blacks to conquer and exclusively pos- 
sess one or more of the southern states of the Union as an 
independent kingdom for themselves. 

At the time when I write these pages, the planters of 
Jamaica and of the other West India Islands are complain- 
ing of the ruinous consequences to them of Negro emanci- 
pation, and blaming the British Government for having 
abrogated slavery. These men apparently do not believe in 
the moral government of the world, or they do not know the 
manner in which it is administered. If they did, they 
would acknowledge that those who sow the wind have no 
right to complain when they reap the whirlwind. The per- 
manence of Negro slavery in the West Indies was impossi- 
ble ; because it was a system of gross injustice, cruelty, and 
oppression, and no such social fabric can permanently en- 
dure. Its fruits have long been poisonous and bitter, and 
the planters are suffering the penalty of having reared them. 
They ought, however, to thank the justice and repentant 
generosity of the mother country, which, by purchasing the 
freedom of the slaves, bas so greatly mitigated their punish- 
ment ; for they may rest assured, that the annoyances now 
suffered are light and transient compared with the calami- 
ties which would have befallen them had slavery been 
prolonged until it had wrought out its own termination. 
Another generation will probably see and acknowledge thii 



240 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

truth. But, in the mean time, I remark, that be the sufferings 
of the West India planters at present what they may, they, 
as the representatives of the original transgressors, are justly 
sustaining the penalty ; and, in their instance, as in that of a 
patient undergoing a severe operation to escape from a dan- 
gerous disease, delay would only have protracted their 
affliction, and augmented the ultimate pain and the danger 
of the remedy. 

The Spaniards, under the influence of selfish rapacity 
and ambition, conquered South America, inflicted upon its 
wretched inhabitants the most atrocious cruelties, and con- 
tinued, for 300 years, to weigh like a moral incubus upon 
that quarter of the globe. The punishment is now endured. 
By the laws of the Creator, nations must obey the moral 
law to be happy ; that is, to cultivate the arts of peace, and 
to be industrious, upright, intelligent, pious, and humane. 
The reward of such conduct is individual happiness, and 
national greatness and glory : there shall then be none to 
make them afraid. The Spaniards disobeyed all these laws 
in the conquest of America ; they looked to rapine and 
foreign gold, and not to industry, for wealth ; and this fos- 
tered avarice and pride in the government, baseness in the 
nobles, and indolence, ignorance, and mental depravity in 
the people — it led them to imagine happiness to consist, not 
in the exercise of the moral and intellectual powers, but in 
the gratification of all the inferior, to the outrage of the 
higher feelings. Intellectual cultivation was utterly neg- 
lected, the sentiments ran astray into bigotry and supersti- 
tion, and the propensities acquired a fearful ascendency. 
These causes made them the prey of internal discord and 
foreign invaders, and Spain at this moment suffers an awful 
retribution. 

Cowper recognises these principles of divine government 
as to nations, and has embodied them in the following pow- 
erful verses : 

The hand that slew till it could slay no more, 

Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore* 

Their prince, as justly seated on his throne 

As vain imperial Philip on his own, 

Tricked out of all his royalty by art, 

That stripped him bare, and broke his honest heart, 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 241 

Died by the sentence of a shaven priest, 
For scorning what they taught him to detest. 
How dark the veil, that intercepts the blaze 
Of Heaven's mysterious purposes and ways ! 
God stood not, though he seemed to stand, aloof; 
And at this hour the conqueror feels the proof: 
The wreath he won drew down an instant curse, 
The fretting plague is in the public purse, 
The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state, 
Starved by that indolence their minds create. 

Oh ! could their ancient Incas rise again, 
How would they take up Israel's taunting strain ! 
Art thou too fallen, Iberia ? Do we see 
The robber and the murd'rer weak as we ? 
Thou that hast wasted earth, and dared despise 
Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, 
Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid 
Low in the pits thine avarice has made. 
We come with joy from our eternal rest, 
To see th' oppressor in his turn oppressed. 
Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand 
Rolled over all our desolated land, 
Shook principalities and kingdoms down, 
And made the mountains tremble at his frown? 
The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers, 
And waste them, as the sword has wasted ours. 
'Tis thus Omnipotence his law fulfils, 
And Vengeance executes what justice wills. 

Courper's Poems. — Charity, 

The question has frequently been discussed, whether th* 
civilization of savages may be more easily effected by forci 
ble or by pacific measures. By one class of reasoners, 
including the late excellent Sir Stamford Raffles, it is con- 
tended that civilized nations may, in their endeavours to 
improve and enlighten savage tribes, employ with advantage 
the superior power with which they are armed : but, on the 
principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments, we are 
entitled to conclude, a priori, that such a method of pro 
ceeding would be found ineffectual. The employment of 
compulsion is calculated to rouse chiefly the propensities, 
while the very essence of civilization is the predominance 
of the moral and intellectual powers.* This subject is 

* See Observations on the Phrenological Standard of Civili- 
zation, Phren. Jour. ix. 360. 

21 



242 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ably handled by a very acute anonymous writer in the Li- 
brary of Entertaining Knowledge.* History, he remarks, 
does not warrant the opinion that any nation has ever been 
civilized by the sword ; and the improvement which follow- 
ed the Roman conquests appears to have been brought 
about, not by compulsion, but by the exhibition of "a 
standard and pattern of comfort and elegance which the 
barbarians could hardly fail first to admire, and afterward 
to imitate." The Romans do not seem to have violently 
interfered with the established customs and institutions of 
conquered nations. " The inferior animals," says the ex- 
cellent writer alluded to, " can only be reduced to obedience 
by constraint ; but men are formed to be tamed by other 
methods. Example, persuasion, instruction, are the only 
means we may lawfully make use of to wean savages from 
their barbarism ; and they are also the best fitted to accom- 
plish that object. It is not even pretended that an exercise 
of what are falsely called the rights of conquest for such a 
purpose would have any chance of being successful till 
after the lapse of at least two or three generations — till the 
conquered people, in fact, have become mixed and amalga- 
mated with their conquerors, or, from not having been per- 
mitted to follow the customs of their ancestors, have actually 
forgotten them. In some cases the natives have been ab- 
solutely extirpated before this has happened, as was the 
case almost universally on the South American continent, 
and of which we have a more remarkable instance in the 
attempts of the Spanish Jesuits to christianize by main 
force the inhabitants of the Marianas, which were termi- 
nated in a few years by the almost entire depopulation of 
that beautiful archipelago."! 

In surveying the present aspect of Europe, we perceive 
astonishing improvements achieved in physical science. 
How much is implied in the mere names of the steam- 
engine, power-looms, rail-roads, steam-boats, canals, and 
gas-lights ; and yet of how much misery are several of these 
inventions at present the direct sources, in consequence of 
being almost exclusively dedicated to the gratification of the 

* The New Zealanders, p. 402-410. 

f "See the narrative of these extraordinary proceedings, 
though related by a pen in the interest of their authors* in 
Father Legobien's Histoire des lies Mariannes. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAvV. 243 

propensities ! The leading purpose to which the steam 
engine in almost all its forms of application is devoted, is 
the accumulation of wealth, or the gratification of Acquisi- 
tiveness and Self-Esteem ; and few have proposed to lessen, 
by its means, the hours of toil of the lower orders of society, 
so as to afford them opportunity and leisure for the cultiva- 
tion of their moral and intellectual faculties, and thereby to 
enable them to render a more perfect obedience to the Cre- 
ator's institutions. Physical has far outstripped moral 
science ; and it appears to me, that, unless mankind shall 
have their eyes opened to the real constitution of the world, 
and be at length induced to regulate their conduct in har- 
mony with the laws of the Creator, their future physical 
discoveries will tend only to deepen their wretchedness. 
Intellect, acting as the ministering servant of the propensi- 
ties, will lead them only farther astray. The science of 
man's whole nature, animal, moral, and intellectual, was 
never more required to guide him than at present, when he 
seems to wield a giant's power, but in the application of it 
to display the ignorant selfishness, wilfulness, and absurdity 
of an overgrown child. History has not yielded half her 
fruits, and cannot yield them until mankind shall possess a 
true theory of their own nature. 

Many persons believe that they discover evidence against 
the moral government of the world, in the success of indi- 
viduals not greatly gifted with moral and intellectual quali- 
ties, in attaining to great wealth, rank, and social considera- 
tion, while men of far superior merit remain in obscurity 
and poverty. But the solution of this difficulty is to be 
found in the consideration, that success in society depends 
on the possession, in an ample degree, of the qualities 
which society needs and appreciates, and that these bear 
reference to the state in which society finds itself at the time 
when the observation is made. In the savage and barba- 
rous conditions, bodily strength, courage, fortitude, and 
skill in war, lead a man to the highest honours ; in a society 
like that of modern England, commercial or manufacturing 
industry may crown an individual with riches, and great 
talents *>f debate may carry him to the summit of political 
ambstiotk In proportion as society advances in moral and 
intellectual acquirements, it wili make larger demands for 
fiirif'ciai qualities in its favourites. The reality of the moral 



244 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

government of the world appears from the degree of happi- 
ness which individuals and society enjoy in these different 
fetates. If unprincipled commercial and political adventurers 
were happy in proportion to their apparent success ; or if 
nations were as prosperous under the dominion of reckless 
warriors as under that of benevolent and enlightened rulers ; 
or if the individuals who compose a nation enjoyed as much 
serenity and joy of mind when they advanced the bold, 
selfish, and unprincipled to places of trust and power, as 
when they chose the upright, benevolent, and pious, — the 
dominion of a just Creator might well be doubted. But the 
facts are the reverse of these. 



CHAPTER VI. 
ON PUNISHMENT. 

SECT. I. ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED UNDER THE NATU 

RAL LAWS. 

The last point connected with the Natural Laws, which 
I consider, is the principle on which punishment for in- 
fringement of them is inflicted in this world. 

Every law presupposes a superior, who establishes it, and 
requires obedience to its dictates. The superior may be 
supposed to act under the dictates of the animal faculties, 
or under those of the moral sentiments. The former being 
selfish, whatever they desire is for selfish gratification. 
Hence laws instituted by a superior inspired by the animal 
powers, would have for their leading object the individual 
advantage of the law-giver, with no systematic regard to 
the enjoyment or welfare of those who were called on to 
obey. The moral sentiments, on the other hand, are alto- 
gether generous, disinterested, and just ; they delight in 
the happiness of others, and do not seek individual advan- 
tage as their supreme end. Laws instituted by a law-giver 
inspired by them, would have for their grand object the 
advantage and enjoyment of those who were required to 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 245 

y ; eld obedience. The story of William Tell will illustrate 
my meaning. Gessler, an Austrian governor of the canton 
of Uri, placed his hat upon a pole, and required the Swiss 
peasants to pay the same honours to it that were due to 
himself. The object of this requisition was obviously the 
gratification of the Austrian's Self-Esteem, in witnessing 
the humiliation of the Swiss. It was framed without the 
least regard to their happiness ; because such abject slavery 
could gratify no faculty in their minds, and ameliorate no 
principle of their nature, but, on the contrary, was calcu- 
lated to cause the greatest pain to their feelings. 

Before punishment for breaking such a law as this could 
be justly inflicted, it would be indispensably necessary that 
the people called on to obey it should not only possess the 
power of doing so, but likewise be benefited by their obedi- 
ence. If it could be established, that, by the very constitu- 
tion of their minds, it was impossible for the Swiss to 
reverence the hat of the tyrant, and that, if they had pre- 
tended to do so, they would have manifested only baseness 
and hypocrisy, — then the law was unjust, and all punish- 
ment for disobedience was pure tyranny and oppression on 
the part of the governor. In punishing, he employed De- 
structiveness as a means of procuring gratification to his 
own Self-Esteem. 

Let us imagine, on the other hand, a law promulgated by 
a sovereign whose sole motive was the happiness of his 
subjects, and that the edict was, Thou shalt not steal. If 
the law-giver were placed far above the reach of theft by 
his subjects, and if respect to each other's rights were in- 
dispensable to the welfare of his people themselves, then it 
is obvious, that, so far as he was personally concerned, their 
stealing or not stealing would be of no importance to him, 
while it would be of the highest moment to themselves. 
Let us suppose, then, that, in order to prevent the evils 
which the subjects would bring upon themselves by steal- 
ing, he were to add as a penalty, that every man who stole 
should be locked up, and instructed in his duty until he 
clearly felt the necessity of abstaining from theft, — the jus- 
tice and benevolence of this sentence would rest securely 
on the circumstance, that it was in the highest degree ad- 
vantageous, both to society at large and to the offender him- 
self. Suppose that the latter was born with large organs 
21* 



248 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

of Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness, and deficient in Con- 
scientiousness, and that when he committed the offence he 
really could not help stealing, — still there would be no 
cruelty and no injustice in locking him up, and instructing 
him in moral duty until he learned to abstain from theft ; 
because, if this were not done, and if all men were to fol- 
low his example and only steal, the human race, and he, as 
a member of it, would necessarily starve and become extinct. 

Now, the Creator's natural laws so far as I have been 
able to perceive them, are instituted solely on the latter 
principle ; that is to say, there is not the slightest indica- 
tion of the object of any of the arrangements of creation 
being to gratify an inferior feeling in the Creator himself. 
No well-constituted mind, indeed, could conceive him com- 
manding beings whom He called into existence, and whom 
He could annihilate in a moment, to do any act of homage 
which had reference merely to the acknowledgment of His 
authority, solely for His personal gratification, and without 
regard to their own welfare and enjoyment. We cannot, 
in short, without absolute outrage to the moral sentiments 
and intellect, imagine. him doing any thing analogous to the 
act of the Swiss governor — placing an emblem of His au- 
thority on high, and requiring His creatures to obey it, 
merely to gratify Himself by their homage, to their own 
disparagement and distress. Accordingly, every natural 
liw, so far as I can discover, appears clearly instituted for 
the purpose of adding to the enjoyment of the creatures 
who are called on to obey it. The object of the punish- 
ment inflicted for disobedience is to arrest the offender in 
his departure from the laws ; which departure, if permitted 
to proceed to its natural termination, would involve him in 
tenfold greater miseries. This arrangement greatly pro- 
motes the activity of the faculties ; and, active faculties be- 
ing fountains of pleasure, the penalties themselves become 
benevolent and just. For example, 

Under one of* the physical laws, all organic bodies are 
liable to combustion. Timber, coal, oils, and animal sub- 
stances, when heated to a certain extent, catch *nre and 
burn : And the question occurs, Was this quality bestowed 
on them for a benevolent purpose or not ] Let us look to 
the advantages attending it. By means of fire we obtain 
warmth in cold latitudes, and light after the sun has set • 



tTNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 247 

it -enables us to cook, thereby rendering our food more 
wholesome and savoury ; and by its aid we soften and fuse 
the metals. I need go no farther ; every one will acknow- 
ledge, that, by the law under which organic bodies are liable 
to combustion, countless benefits are conferred on the hu- 
man race. 

The human body itself, however, is organized, and in 
consequence is subject to this law ; so that, if placed in a 
great fire, it is utterly dissipated in a few minutes. Some 
years ago, a woman, in a fit of insanity, threw herself into 
an iron smelting furnace, in full blaze : she was observed 
by a man working on the spot, who instantly put off the 
steam-engine that was working the bellows, and came to 
take her out ; but he then saw only a small black speck on 
the surface of the fire, and in a few minutes more even it 
had disappeared. The effect of the less degree of heat is 
to disorganize the texture of the body. What mode, then, 
has the Creator followed, to preserve men from the danger 
to which they are subjected by fire] He has caused their 
nerves to communicate sensations from heat, agreeable while 
the temperature is such as to benefit the body ; slightly 
uneasy, when it becomes so high as to be in some measure 
hurtful ; positively painful when the heat approaches that 
degree at which it would seriously injure the organized 
system ; and horribly agonizing whenever it becomes so 
elevated as to destroy the organs. The principle of all this 
is very obviously benevolent. Combustion brings us innu- 
merable advantages ; and when we place ourselves in ac- 
cordance with the law intended to regulate our relation to 
it, we reap unmingled benefits and pleasure. But we are in 
danger from its excessive action ; and so kind is the Cre- 
ator, that he does not trust to the guardianship of our own 
Cautiousness and intellect a!one to protect us from infringe- 
ment, but has established a monitor in every sensitive nerve, 
whose admonitions increase in intensity through impercepti- 
ble gradations, exquisitely adjusted to the degrees of danger, 
till at last, in pressing circumstances, they urge in a note 
so claimant as to excite the whole physical and mental 
energy of the offender to withdraw him from the impending 
destruction. 

Many persons imagine that this mode of admonition 



248 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

would be altogether unexceptionable if the offender always 
possessed the power to avoid incurring it, but that, on the 
other hand, when a child, or an aged person, stumbles into 
the lire, through mere lack of bodily strength to keep out 
of it, it cannot be just and benevolent to visit him with the 
tortures that follow from burning. This, however, is a 
short-sighted objection. If, to remedy the evil supposed, 
the law of combustion were altogether suspended as to 
children and old men, so that, as far as they were concerned, 
fire did not exist, then they would be deprived of the light, 
warmth, and other benefits which it affords. This would 
be an awful deprivation ; for warmth is more than com- 
monly grateful and necessary to them, in consequence of 
the very feebleness of their frames. Or we may suppose 
that their nerves were constituted so as to feel no pain from 
burning — an arrangement which would effectually guarantee 
them against the tortures of falling in the fire : But, in the 
first place, nerves feel pain under the same law that enables 
them to feel pleasure — the agony of burning arises alto- 
gether from an excessive degree of the stimulus of heat, 
which, when moderate, is genial and pleasant ; and, secondly, 
if no pain were felt when in the fire, the child and old man 
would have no urgent motive to get out of it. Under the 
present system, the pain would excite an intense desire to 
escape ; it would increase their muscular energy, or make 
them roar aloud for assistance ; in short, it would compel 
them to get out of the fire, by some means or other, and 
thus if possible escape from death. As they fell into the 
fire in consequence of a deficiency of mental or bodily 
power to keep out of it, the conclusion is obvious, that if 
no pain attended their contact with the flames, they might 
repose there as contentedly as on a bed of down ; and the 
fond mother might find a black cinder for her child, or a 
pious daughter a half-chared mass of bones for her father, 
although he had been only in an adjoining apartment, the 
slightest cry or groan from which would have brought her 
to arrest the calamity. 

In this instance, then, the law of combustion under which 
punishment is inflicted, is both benevolent and just, even 
when pain visits persons who were incapable of avoiding 
the offence ; because the object of the law is the welfare of 



I7HDER THE NATURAL LAWS* 249 

these very unconscious offenders themselves, so that if it 
were subverted, they would be greatly injured, and would 
loudly petition for its re-establishment. 

Let us take another example. Opium, by its inherent 
qualities, and the relationship established by the Creator be- 
tween it and the nervous system of man, operates, if taken 
in one proportion, as a stimulant ; if the proportion is in- 
creased, it becomes a sedative ; and if still increased, it par- 
alyzes the nervous system altogether, and death ensues. 
Kow, it is generally admitted, that there is no want of be- 
nevolence and justice, when a full-grown and intelligent 
man loses his life, if he deliberately swallow an overdose of 
opium, knowing its qualities and their effects ; because, it is 
said, he exposed himself to these effects voluntarily ; When, 
however, an ignorant child, groping about for something to 
eat and drink, in order to satisfy the craving of its natural 
curiosity and appetite, stumbles on a phial of laudanum, in- 
tended for the use of some sick relative, pulls the cork, 
drinks, and dies, — many persons imagine that it is very 
difficult to discover justice and benevolenee in this severe, 
and, as they say, unmerited catastrophe. 

But the real view of the law under which both events 
happen, appears to me to be this. The inherent qualities 
of opium, and its relationship to the nervous system, are 
very obviously benvolent, and are the sources of manifest 
advantages to man. If, in order to avoid every chance of 
accidents, opium, in so far as children are concerned, were 
deprived' of its qualities, so that their nervous systems re- 
ceived no greater impression from it than from tepid water, 
it is clear that they would be decidedly sufferers. The 
greatest advantages of the drug arv derived from its scale of 
efficiency, by which it can be made to produce, first a stimu- 
lating effect, then a gently sedative, and afterward a higher 
and a higher degree of sedative influence, until, by insensi- 
ole degrees, absolute paralysis may ensue. A dose which 
kills in health will cure in disease ; and, if its range were 
limited to effects beneficial in health, its advantages in dis- 
ease, arising from higher action, would necessarily be lost — 
so that children, by the supposed arrangement, would be 
cut off from its beneficial administration. The parallel be- 
tween it and the law of combustion is complete. If we 
could never have commanded a degree of heat higher than that 



250 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

which gently warms the human body, we must have wanted 
all the advantages now derivable from the intense heats used 
in cooking, baking, and manufacturing ; if we could never 
have commanded more than the gently stimulant and seda- 
tive effects of opium on the body in a state of health, we 
should necessarily have been deprived of its powerful reme- 
dial action in cases of disease. The proper question then 
is, Whether is it more benevolent and just that children, 
after they have been exposed, from whatever cause, to that 
high degree of its influence, which, although beneficial in 
in disease, is adverse to the healthy action of the nervous 
system, should be preserved alive in this miserable condition, 
or that life should at once be terminated 1 It appears obvi- 
ously advantageous to the offender himself, that death 
should relieve him from the unhappy condition into which 
his organized frame has been brought by the abuse of this 
substance, calculated, when discreetly used, to confer on 
him no mean advantages. 

The principle that Divine punishments are founded in 
benevolence, even to the sufferer, is strongly elucidated in 
the case of the organic laws. When inflammation, for ex- 
ample, has seized any vital organ, if there were no pain, there 
would be no intimation that an organic law had been infrin- 
ged, the disease would proceed quietly in its progress, and 
death would ensue without the least previous warning. 
The pain attending an acute disease, therefore, is obviously 
instituted to warn the sufferer, by the most forcible of all 
admonitions, to return to obedience to the law which he has 
infringed. In the case of a broken limb, or a deep cut, the 
principle becomes exceedingly obvious. The bone of the leg 
will reunite, if the broken edges are preserved in close con- 
tact ; and the subsequent serviceable condition of the limh 
will depend much upon the degree of exactness with which 
they have been made to re-approach and been preserved 
in their natural position. Now, in the first place, the pain 
attending a broken limb gives a most peremptory intimation 
that an injury has been sustained; secondly, it excites the 
individual most forcibly to the reparation of it ; and, thirdly, 
as it recurs with a degree of violence exactly proportioned 
to the disturbance of the parts, after the healing process has 
commenced it officiates like a sentinel with a drawn sword, 
compelling the patient to avoid every thing that may impede 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 251 

his recovery. The same observation apply to a flesh-wound. 
The pain serves to intimate the injury, and to excite to its 
removal. The dissevered edges of the skin, nerves, and 
muscles, if skilfully made to re-approach, will, by the organic 
law, reunite if left in repose. An accession of pain follows 
every disturbance of their condition, when in the process of 
healing ; and it serves, therefore, as a most effectual and 
benevolent guardian of the welfare of the individual. If these 
views be correct, what person would dispense w r ith the pain 
which attends the infringement of the organic laws, although 
such a boon were offered for his acceptance 1 It is obvious, 
that, if he possessed the least glimmering of understanding, 
he would thank the Creator for the institution, and beg in 
mercy to be allowed the benefits attending it : especially if 
he considered the fact, that, after the possibility of recovery 
ceases, death steps in to terminate the suffering. 

The point to which I request the reader's special attention 
is, that the power of the individual to avoid, or not to avoid, 
the infringement of the law in the particular instance which 
brings the punishment, is not an indispensable circumstance 
in rendering the infliction benevolent and just. The inflic- 
tion is approved of by the moral sentiments and intellect, be- 
cause the law, in its legitimate operation, is calculated alto- 
gether for the advantage of the subject ; and because the pun- 
ishment has no object but to bring him back to obedience for 
his own welfare, or to terminate his sufferings when he has 
erred too widely to return. 

Let us now inquire whether the same principle prevails in 
regard to the infringement of the Moral and Intellectual 
Laws. This investigation is attended with great difficulty ; 
and it may be best elucidated by attending, in the first place, 
to the liability to punishment for their actions, under which 
the lower animals are placed. 

The physical and organic laws affect the inferior creatures 
in the same manner as they regulate man, so that nothing 
need be said on these points. The animals are endowed with 
propensities impelling them to act, and a certain degree of 
intellect enabling them to perceive the consequences of their 
actions. These faculties prompt them to inflict punishment 
on each other for infringement of their rights, although they 
possess no sentiments pointing out the moral guilt of such 
conduct. For example, dogs possess Acquisitiveness, which 



%J* ON rUNISHMENT AS VSFLICTKT* 

gives them the sense of property : when one is in possession 
of a bone, and another attempts to steal it, this act instantly 
excites the Combativeness and Destructiveness of the pro- 
prietor of the bone, and he proceeds to worry the asailani. 
Or a cock, on a dunghill, finds a rival intruding on his 
domain, and under the instinctive inspiration of Combative- 
ness and offended Self- Esteem, he attacks him and drives 
him off. I call this inflicting animal punishment, in these 
cases it is not supposed that the aggressors possess moral 
faculties, intimating that their trespass is wrong, or free 
will by which they could avoid it. I view them as inspired 
by their propensities, and rushing blindly to gratification. 
Nevertheless, in the effect which the aggression produces on 
the propensities of the animal assailed, we perceive an ar- 
rangement instituted by the Creator for checking outrage r 
and arresting its progress. 

Before the penalty inflicted could be viewed by man as 
just in such cases, it would be necessary to perceive that it 
was instituted for the benefit of the aggressors themselves ;, 
and, in truth, this is clearly observed to be the case. If all 
dogs neglected to seek bones, and dedicated themselves solely 
to stealing ; and if coeks, in general, deserted their own do- 
mains, and gave themselves up only to felonious inroads on 
each other's territories ; it is evident that the races of these 
animals would soon become extinct. It follows also, that 
any individual among them who should habitually abandon 
himself to such transgressions, would speedily lose his life 
by violence or starvation. If, then, it is beneficial for the 
race, and also for the individual offender himself, in these 
instances, to be arrested in his progress, his chastisement is 
decidedly benevolent and just. 

It is interesting to observe, that various provisions are 
made under the animal law for bringing about substantial 
justice, even in creatures destitute of the sentiment of Con- 
scientiousness. The lower animals make perfectly sure of 
punishing only the real offender ; for he must be caught in 
the act, otherwise he is not visited by their resentment. In 
the next place, it appears to be the general law of animal 
nature, that, unless the offender has carried his inroad to an 
extreme extent, the punishment is relaxed the moment he 
desists ; that is to say, the master of the bone or dunghill is 
generally satisfied with simple defence^ and rarely abandons 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAW8. 253 

his treasure to pursue the offender for the sake of mere re- 
venge. 

Farther, the animals, in inflicting punishment, make no 
inquiry into the cause of the offence. With them it affords 
no alleviation that the aggressor is himself in a state of the 
greatest destination, or that his appetite is irresistible ; 
neither do they concern themselves about his fate after they 
have made him undergo the penalty. He may die of the 
wounds they have inflicted upon him, or of absolute starva- 
tion, before their eyes, without their enjoyment being in the 
least disturbed. This arises from their faculties consisting 
entirely of those powers which regard only self. They 
are deficient in the faculties which inquire into causes and 
trace consequences ; and in the moral sentiments, which 
desire, with a disinterested affection, the welfare of other 
beings. 

Nevertheless, the punishment which they inflict is in it- 
self just, and serves, as we have seen, a decidedly beneficial 
end. Let us now direct our attention to man. 

Man possesses the same animal propensities as those of 
the lower creatures, and, under their instigation, he inflicts 
punishment on principles precisely analogous to those under 
which they chastise. Indeed, it is curious to remark, that 
hitherto the criminal laws, even of the most civilized nations, 
have been framed on the principles of animal punishment 
exclusively. A thief, for example, breaks into a dwelling- 
house and steals. The reflecting faculties are employed to 
discover the offender, and find evidence of the offence. 
Judges and juries assemble to determine whether the evi- 
dence is sufficient ; and if they find it to be so, the offender 
is ordered to be banished, imprisoned, or hanged. We are. 
apt to imagine that there is something moral in the trial. 
But the sole object of it is to ascertain that a crime has been 
committed, and that the accused is the real offender. The 
dog and cock make equally certain of both points ; because 
they never punish except when the individual is caught in 
the offence. Guilt being ascertained, and the offender iden- 
tified, the dog shakes and worries him, and then lets him 
go ; while man scourges his back, or makes him mount the 
steps of a tread-mill, and then turns him adrift. ]f the 
offender has been very presumptuous and pertinacious in 
his aggression, the dog sometimes, although rarely, throttles 
22 - 



254 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

him outright; and man, in similar circumstances, very 
generally strangles him with a rope, or cuts off his head 
The dog, -in his proceeding, makes no inquiry into the 
causes which led to the crime, or into the consequences, 
upon the offender, of the punishment which he inflicts. In 
this also he is imitated by the human race. Man inflicts his 
vengeance with as little inquiry into the causes which led to 
the offence, — and* except when he puts him to death, he 
turns the culprit adrift upon the world after he has under- 
gone his punishment, with as little concern about what 
shall next befall him as is shown by his canine prototype. 
The dog acts in this manner, because he is inspired by ani- 
mal propensities, and higher faculties have been denied him. 
Man imitates him, because he too has received animal fac- 
ulties, — and because, although he possesses, in addition to 
them, moral sentiments and reflecting intellect, he has not 
yet discovered the practical application of these to the sub 
ject of criminal legislation. 

The animal punishment is not without advantage ever* 
in the case of man, although it is far short, in this respect, 
of what he might obtain by following the guidance of his 
moral sentiments and enlightened intellect. Man as a 
mere animal could not exist in society, unless some check 
were instituted against abuses of the propensities ; and 
hence it is quite obvious, that animal vengeance, rude as it 
is, carries with it results beneficial even to the offender, 
except where it puts him to death — a degree of punishment 
which, as we have seen, the lower animals rarely inflict on 
each other of the same species. Unless the outrages of 
Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self-Estecm, and the other 
animal faculties, were checked, human society would be dis- 
solved, and by that result the offenders themselves would 
suffer more grievous calamities than under any moderate 
form of animal castigation. 

The world is arranged, in so far as regards the lower 
creatures, with a wise relation to the faculties bestowed on 
them. Accordingly, animal resentment is really effective 
in their case. In consequence of their not possessing re- 
flecting faculties, they are incapable of forming deep or ex- 
tensive schemes for mutual aggression, and are not led to 
speculate on the chances of escaping detection in their mis- 
deeds. Their offences ate limited to casual overflowings 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAW8. 265 

of their propensities when excited by momentary tempta- 
tion ; which are checked by counter overflowings of other 
propensities, momentarily excited in the animals aggrieved. 

In regard to man, however, the world has been arranged 
on the principle of supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
intellect ; and, in consequence, animal retribution is not 
equally effectual in his case. For example, a human of- 
fender employs his intellect in devising means to enable 
him to escape detection, or to defend himself against punish- 
ment ; and hence, although he sees punishment staring him 
in the face, his hope deludes him into the belief that he may 
escape it. Farther, if the real cause of human offences be 
excessive size and activity of the organs of the animal pro- 
pensities, it follows that mere punishment cannot put a stop 
to crime ; because it overlooks thl cause, and leaves it to ope- 
rate with unabated energy after the infliction has been endured. 
The history of the world, accordingly, presents us with a 
regular succession of crimes and punishments, and at pre- 
sent the series appears to be as far removed from a termina- 
tion as at any previous period of the annals of the race. 

If the world, in regard to man, has been arranged on the 
principle of supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, 
we might expect better success were moral retribution, of 
which I now proceed to treat, resorted to. 

The motive which prompts the dog to worry, and the 
cock to peck and spur his assailant, is, as we have seen, 
mere animal resentment. His propensities are disagreeably 
affected, and Combativeness and Destructiveness instinc- 
tively start into activity to repel the aggression. The ani- 
mal resentment of man is precisely analogous. A thief is 
odious to Acquisitiveness, because he robs it of its trea- 
sures ; a murderer is offensive to our feelings, because he 
extinguishes life. And, these* faculties being offended, 
Combativeness and Destructiveness rush to their aid in 
man while under the animal dominion, as instinctively as 
in the dog, — and punish the offender on principles, and in 
a way, exactly similar. 

The case is different with the proper human faculties. 
Benevolence, contemplating outrage and murder, disap- 
proves of them because they are hostile to its inherent con- 
stitution, and because they occasion calamities to those who 
are their objects, and misery to the perpetrators themselves. 



256 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

Conscientiousness is pained by the perception of theft, be- 
cause its very nature revolts at every infringement of right, 
and because justice is essential to the welfare of all intelli- 
gent beings. Veneration is offended at reckless insult and 
indignity, because its desire is to respect the intelligent 
creatures of the God whom it adores, believing that they 
are all the objects of his love. When crime is presented 
to the moral sentiments, therefore, they all ardently and 
instinctively desire that.it should be stopped, and its recur- 
rence prevented, just because it is in direct opposition to 
their very nature ; and this impression on their part is not 
dependent on the power of the criminal to offend or to for- 
bear. Benevolence grieves at death inflicted by a madman, 
and calls aloud that it should be averted ; Conscientious- 
ness disavows all theft, although committed by an idiot, and 
requires that he should be restrained ; while veneration re- 
coils at the irreverences even of the phrensied. The cir- 
cumstance of the offenders being involuntary agents, quite 
incapable of restraining their propensities, does not alter 
the aversion of the moral faculties to their actions ; and the 
reasons of this are obvious : first, these faculties hate evil 
because it is contrary to their nature, from whatever source 
it springs ; and, secondly, the circumstance of the aggressor 
being a necessary agent, does not diminish the cajamity 
inflicted on the sufferer. It is as painful to be killed by a 
madman as by a deliberate assassin ; and it is as destructive 
to property to be robbed by a cunning idiot, as by an acute 
and practised thief. 

We perceive, therefore, as the first feature of the moral 
and intellectual law, that the higher sentiments, absolutely 
and in all circumstances, declare against offences, and de- 
mand imperatively that they shall be brought to an end. 

There is a great difference, however, between the means 
which they suggest for accomplishing this object, and those 
prompted by the propensities. The latter, as I have said, 
blindly inflict animal resentment without the slightest re- 
gard to the causes which led to the crime, or the conse- 
quences of the punishment. They seize the aggressor, and 
worry, bite, or strangle him ; and there they begin and ter- 
minate their operations. 

The moral and intellectual faculties, on the other hand, 
embrace even the criminal himself within the range of their 



«7NDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 257 

sympathies. Benevolence desires to render him virtuous, 
and thereafter happy, as well as to rescue his victim. Ve- 
neration desires that he should be treated as a man ; and 
Conscientiousness declares that it cannot with satisfaction 
acquiesce in any administration towards him that does not 
tend to remove the motives of his misconduct, and to pre- 
vent their recurrence. The first step, then, which the 
moral and intellectual faculties combine in demanding, is a 
full exposition of the causes of the offence, and the conse 
quences of the mode of treatment proposed. 

Let us, then, pursue this investigation ; and here it may 
be observed, that we are now in condition to do so with 
something like a chance of success ; for, by the aid of Phre- 
nology, we have obtained a tolerably clear view of the ele- 
mentary faculties of the mind, and the effects of organization 
on their activity and vigour. 

The leading fact, then, which arrests our attention ir 
this inquiry, is, that every crime proceeds from an abuse of 
some faculty or other; and the question immediately arises, 
Whence originates the tendency to abuse 1 Phrenology 
enables us to answer, From three sources : first, from par- 
ticular organs being too large and spontaneously active ; 
secondly, from great excitement produced by external cause ; 
or, thirdly, from ignorance of what are uses and what are 
abuses of the faculties. 

The moral and intellectual powers next demand, What 
is the cause of particular organs being too large and active 
in individuals I Phrenology, for answer, points to the law 
of hereditary descent, by which the organs most energetic 
in the parents determine those which shall predominate in 
the child. Intellect then infers that, according to this view, 
certain individuals are unfortunate at birth, in having re- 
ceived organs from their parents so ill proportioned, that 
abuse of some of them is almost an inevitable consequence 
if they are left to the sole guidance of their own sugges- 
tions. Phrenology replies, that the fact appears to be ex- 
actly so. In the Museum of the Phrenological Society is 
exhibited a large assemblage of skulls and casts of the 
heads of criminals, collected from Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
America ; and an undeniable feature in them all, is a great 
preponderance of the organs of the animal faculties over 
those of the moral sentiments and intellect 
22* 



258 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

In the next place, great excitement from external causes 
may arise from the individual being pressed by animal 
want, stimulated by intoxicating liquors, or seduced by evil 
example, and from a variety of similar influences. 

And, thirdly, abuses may arise from sheer want of infor- 
mation concerning the constitution of the mind and its re- 
lations to external objects. Persecution for opinion, for 
example is a crime obviously referrible to these sources. 

1 have examined the cerebral development of a consider- 
able number of criminals, and inquired into the external cir- 
cumstances in which they had been placed, and have no 
hesitation in saying, that if, in the case of every offender, 
the three sources of crime here enumerated were investi- 
gated, reported on, and published, the conviction would be- 
come irresistible that the individual was the victim of his 
nature and external condition, and penitentiaries would be 
resorted to as the only means of at once abating crime and 
satisfying the moral feelings of the community. The public 
err through ignorance, and knowledge only is needed, to 
ensure their going into the right path. 

M oreover, intellect perceives, and the moral sentiments 
acknowledge, that these causes exist independently of the will 
of the offender. The criminal, for example, is not the cause 
of the unfortunate preponderance of the animal organs in his 
own brain ; neither is he the creator of the external circum- 
stances which lead his propensities into abuse, or of the 
ignorance in which he is involved. Nevertheless, the moral 
and intellectual faculties of the indifferent spectator of his 
condition do not, on this account, admit that he ought, 
either for his own sake or for that of society, to be permitted 
to proceed in an unrestricted course of crime. They abso- 
lutely insist on arresting his progress, and their first ques- 
tion is, How may this best be done \ Intellect answers, 
By removing the causes which produce the offences. 

The first cause — the great preponderance of the animal 
organs — cannot, by any means yet known, be summarily re- 
moved. Intellect, therefore, points out another alternative 
—that of supplying, by moral and physical restraint, the 
control which, in a brain better constituted, is afforded by 
large moral and intellectual organs ; in short, of placing the 
offender under such a degree of effective control as ab 
solutely to prevent the abuses of his faculties. Benevolenco 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 259 

acknowledges this proceeding to be kind, Veneration to be 
respectful, and Conscientiousness to be just, at once to the 
offender himself and to society ; and Intellect perceives that, 
whenever it is adopted, it will form an important step to- 
wards preventing a repetition of crimes. 

The second cause, viz. great excitement from without, 
may be removed by withdrawing the individual from the in- 
fluence of the unfavourable external circumstances to which 
he is exposed. The very restraint and control which serve 
to effect the first object, will directly tend to accomplish this 
second one at the same time. 

The third cause — namely ignorance — may be removed 
by conveying instruction to the intellectual powers. 

If these principles be sound, the measures now recom- 
mended ought, when viewed in all theii consequences, to 
be not only the most just and benevolent, but at the same 
time the most advantageous that could be adopted. Let us 
contrast their results with those of the animal method. 

Under the animal system, as we have already seen, no 
measures except the excitement of terror, are taken to pre- 
vent the commission of crime. Under the moral plan, as 
soon as a tendency to abuse the faculties appeared in any 
individual, instant means of prevention would be resorted 
to, because the sentiments could not be satisfied unless 
this were done. Under the animal system, no inquiry is 
made into the future proceedings of the offender, and he 
is turned loose upon society under the unabated influence 
of all the causes which led to his infringement of the law ; 
and, as effects never cease while their causes continue to 
operate, he repeats his offence, and becomes the object of a 
new animal infliction. Under the moral system, the causes 
would be removed, and the evil effects would cease. 

Under the animal system, the propensities of the offender 
and society are maintained in habitual excitement ; for the 
punishment proceeds from the animal faculties, and is like- 
wise addressed to them. Flogging, for intance, proceeds 
from Destructiveness, and is addressed solely to sensation 
and fear. The tread-mill springs from Destructiveness in a 
milder form, and, as its sole object is to cause annoyance 
to the offender, it is obviously addressed only to Cautious- 
ness and his selfish feelings. Hanging and decapitation un- 
deniably spring from Destructiveness, and are administered 



260 ON PUMSHMKNT AS INFLICTED 

as terrors to the propensities of persons criminally disposed 
These punishments, again, especially the last, are calculated 
to gratify the animal faculties, and none else, in the specta- 
tors who witness them. The execution of a criminal ob- 
viously interests and excites Destructiveness, Cautiousness, 
end Self-Esteem, in the beholder, and nothing can be farther 
removed than such exhibitions from the proper food of Be- 
nevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness. 

Under the moral system, again, the faculties exercised 
and addressed in restraining and instructing the offender 
are, as exclusively as possible, the human powers. The 
propensities are employed merely as the servants of the 
moral sentiments in accomplishing their benignant purposes, 
and Benevolence is as actively engaged in behalf of the of 
fender as of society at large. The whole influence of the 
proceeding is ameliorating and elevating. 

Under the animal system the offspring of parents who 
have been recently engaged in either suffering, inflicting, or 
witnessing punishment, inherit, by the organic law, large 
and active animal organs, occasioned by the excitement of 
these organs in the parents. Thus a public execution, 
from the violent stimulus which it produces in the lower 
faculties of the spectators, may, within twenty-four hours 
of its exhibition, be the direct cause of a new crop of vic- 
tims for the gallows. 

Under the moral system, children born of parents actively 
engaged in undergoing, executing, or witnessing the ele- 
vating and ennobling process of moral reformation, will, 
by the organic law, inherit an increased development of the 
moral and intellectual organs, and be farther removed than 
their parents from the risk of lapsing into crime. 

Under the animal system, spectators of crime, and ac- 
complices, need to be bribed with large rewards to induce 
them to communicate their knowledge of the offence ; and 
witnesses require to be compelled by penalties to bear tes- 
timony to what they have seen concerning it. Many will 
recollect the affecting picture of mental agony drawn by the 
author of Waverly, when Jeanie Deans, at the bar of the 
High Court of Justiciary, gives evidence against her sister, 
which was to deprive that sister of life. Parallel cases 
occur too frequently in actual experience. The real cause 
of this aversion to betray, and internal repugnance to give 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 261 

evidence, is, that the moral sentiments are revolted by the 
delivery of the culprit to the cruelty of animal resentment. 

Under the moral system, the higher sentiments and in- 
tellect of the spectator of a crime, and those of the nearest 
relatives of the offender, would unite with those of society 
at large in an unanimous desire to deliver him up with the 
utmost speed to the ameliorating influence of moral treat- 
ment, as the highest benevolence even to himself. 

Under the animal system, the office of public execu- 
tioner is odious, execrable, and universally contemned. If 
it were necessary by the Creator's institutions, it would pre- 
sent the extraordinary anomaly of a necessary duty being 
execrated by the moral sentiments. This would be a direct 
inconsistency between the dictates of the superior faculties 
and the arrangement of the external world. But the ani- 
mal executioner is not acknowledged as necessary by the 
human faculties. Under the moral system, the criminal 
would be committed to persons whose duties would be 
identical with those of the clergyman, the physician, and 
the teacher. These are the executioners under the moral 
law ; and, just because their avocations are highly grateful 
to the superior sentiments, they are the most esteemed of 
mankind. 

The highest and the most important object of this long 
exposition of the principles of punishment under the natur 
ral laws, remains to be unfolded. 

We are all liable to abuse our faculties ; and the inquiry 
is exceedingly interesting, what, in our cases, are the causes 
of the infringement of the moral law. The offences which 
we daily commit, are neither more nor less than minor de- 
grees of abuse of the very same faculties of which crimes 
are the greater. For example, if in private life we back- 
bite or slander our neighbour, we commit abuses of Self- 
Esteem and Destructiveness, which, if increased merely in 
intensity, without at all changing their nature, might end, 
as in Ireland, in maiming his cattle, or, as in Spain or Italy, 
in murdering him outright. If, in any transaction of life, 
we deliberately give false representations as to any article 
we have for sale, or overcharge it in price, this is just a 
minor abuse of Secretiveness and Acquisitiveness acting in 
absence of the moral sentiments, of which abuse pocket- 
picking and stealing are higher degrees. I need not carry 



2<52 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

the parallel farther. It is so obvious that every offence 
against the moral law is an abuse of some faculty or other, 
and that great crimes are merely great abuses, and smaller 
offences more slight aberrations, that every one must per- 
ceive the fact to be so. 

Reverting to what I observed in regard to crime, I repeat, 
that every infringement of the moral law, the smallest as 
well as the greatest, is denounced by the moral sentiments 
and intellect ; just because it is opposed to their nature, 
and they desire absolutely to bring all abuses to an end, 
from whatever source they spring, and be they voluntary or 
involuntary. 

Animal resentment is, according to the present practice 
of society, resorted to as the chief method of dealing with 
the minor, just as it is with the higher, abuses of our facul- 
ties. If one gentleman insults another, the offended party 
makes no inquiry into the state of mind and other 
causes that produced the insult, but proceeds to knock him 
on the head, to challenge and thereafter to shoot him, or to 
prosecute him in a jury court and inflict pain by depriving 
him of money. These are the common methods by which 
men inflict animal retribution on each other, and in essen- 
tial character they do not much differ from those followed 
by the lower creatures. 

I do not say that these proceedings are absolutely with- 
out beneficial effect. The animal faculties are selfish, and 
these inroads upon their enjoyment have undoubtedly a 
tendency to check them. It is painful to a gentleman to 
be knocked down or shot, and, in consequence, many indi- 
viduals whose moral principles are low, are induced so to 
manage matters as to avoid these forms of retaliation, who 
would not be restrained from insulting their neighbours by 
the dictates of their own feelings. But here the benefit 
terminates. The infliction of the chastisement excites only 
the animal faculties of the offended party, and it is address 
ed exclusively to the animal part of the offender's mind. 
Habitual morality, however, cannot exist without supreme 
activity of the moral sentiments ; and the whole code of 
animal law, and animal punishment, does nothing whatever 
to establish this as a permanent condition of mind: 

Under the moral and intellectual law, every thing is dif- 
ferent. ^The intellectual faculties inquire into the causef 



&NDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 263 

of abuses, and the moral sentiments desire to remove them 
with kindness and respect even for the offender himself. 
If one person insult another, the intellect, aided by Phre- 
nology, perceives that he must of necessity do so either 
from extreme predominance of Combativeness, Destructive- 
ness, and Self Esteem in his own brain, so that he has an 
instinctive tendency to insult, just as some ill-natured dogs 
and horses have a tendency to bite without provocation ; or, 
secondly, from excessive stimulus from without, — that is to 
say, from some aggression offered to these lower organs by 
other people ; or, thirdly, from intellectual ignorance, — that 
is, erroneously supposing unreal motives and intentions in 
the party whom he insults. If one person cheat another, 
intellect, with the assistance of Phrenology, perceives that 
he can do so only because Acquisitiveness and Secretive- 
ness predominate in him over Conscientiousness, because 
the external temptation to cheat is too powerful for his 
combination of faculties to resist, or because he is ignorant 
that cheating is equally fatal to his own interest as injurious 
to that of his victim. In short, the conclusion is irresistibly 
come to, that no abuse of the animal faculties can be com- 
mitted that may not be traced to these or similar causes. 

But intellect and the moral sentiments desire to remove 
the causes as the most effectual way of putting an end to 
the effects, and their method is one congenial to their own 
constitution. If a man is by nature irritable, and prone to 
injure every one with whom he comes into contact, they 
desire most sedulously to remove every cause that may tend 
to exasperate his propensities, and also to surround him 
with a pure moral and intellectual atmosphere. If he is 
exposed to temptation, they desire to withdraw it ; if he 
is misinformed, ignorant, or deceived, they desire to instruct 
him and give him correct information. After we have suf- 
fered injury from another, if we perceive the causes from 
which it proceeded to be really such as I have now explain- 
ed, and if we comprehend and believe in the supremacy of 
the moral law, it will be impossible for us to prefer the 
method of redress by animal resentment. 

The question naturally presents itself, What is the dis- 
tinction between right and wrong, under this system ! If 
offences proceed from unfortunate development of brain, 
not fashioned by the individual himself, — from externa) 



264 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

temptations which he did not make,— or from want of 
knowledge which he never had it in his power to possess,— 
how are the distinctions between right and wrong, merit 
and demerit, to be explicated and maintained ] The answer 
is simple. 

The natural distinction between right and wrong, so far as 
man is concerned, depends on the constitution of the moral 
and intellectual faculties. The act of wantonly killing 
another is wrong, because it is in direct opposition to the 
dictates of Benevolence. The act of appropriating to our- 
selves effects belonging to another is wrong, because it is 
distinctly denounced by Conscientiousness ; and so with all 
other misdeeds. The authority of the moral law, in forbid- 
ding these offences, depends on the whole arrangements of 
creation being constituted to enforce its dictates. If Bene- 
volence and Conscientiousness denounce murder, and if 
the whole other faculties of the mind, and the external 
order of things, harmonize with their dictates and combine 
to punish the offender, the foundation and sanctions of the 
moral law appear abundantly strong. It has been objected, 
that, in Tartary, to steal from strangers is honourable ; but 
Dr. T. Brown has well answered this objection. There are 
more principles in the mind than Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Conscientiousness ; and it is quite possible to misin- 
form the intellect, and thereby misdirect the propensities 
and sentiments. For example, the Tartars are taught to 
believe, that all men beyond their own tribes are their ene- 
mies, and would rob and murder them if they could ; and, 
of course, as long as this intellectual conviction lasts, stran- 
gers become the objects of their animal resentment. Every 
foreigner is, in their eyes, a criminal, clearly convicted of 
deliberate purpose to rob and murder. In Britain, under 
Lord Ellenborough's act, when men are convicted in a court 
of this intention, they are delivered over to the hangman to 
be executed ; and we might as well maintain, as a general 
proposition, that the English are fond of hanging one 
another, as that the Tartars approve of robbery and murder. 
Strangers whom the latter maltreat in this manner, actually 
stand convicted in their minds of an intention of using them 
in the same way if they could. The real method ot arriving 
at a correct view of the question is to suppose the convic- 
tion complete in a Tartar's mind, that other men love him 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 265 

and make hirn an object of their most sedulous benevolence, 
and then ask him whether he approves of robbing and mur- 
dering a benefactor. There is no instance of human nature, 
in a state of sanity, regarding such a deed as virtuous. 
The moral law, therefore, when cleared of other principles 
that may act along with it, but are not part of it, is obviously 
universal and inflexible in its dictates. 

The views contained in this chapter were printed and 
distributed among a few friends in 1827, and I was favoured 
by them with several remarks. Two of these appear to me 
to merit a reply. 

It is objected, that, according to the moral system of 
treating offenders, punishment would be abrogated and 
crime encouraged. 

I respectfully answer, that if this system be right in itself, 
and suited to the nature of man, it will carry in itself all the 
punishment that will be needed, or that can serve any bene- 
ficial end. I believe that to an individual whose mind con- 
sists chiefly of animal propensities and intellect, — confine- 
ment, compulsory labour, and the enforcement of moral 
conduct, will be highly disagreeable, and that this is the 
punishment which the Creator designed should attend that 
unfortunate combination of mental qualities. It is analo- 
gous to the pain of a wound ; the object of which is, to 
induce the patient to avoid injuring himself again. The 
irksomeness and suffering to a criminal, inseparable from 
confinement and forced labour, are intended as inducements 
to him to avoid infringements of the moral law ; and when 
perceived by himself to arise from the connexion established 
by the Creator between crime and the most humane means 
of restraining it, he will learn to submit to the infliction, 
without those rebellious feelings which are generally ex- 
cited by pure animal retribution. It appears to me that the 
call for more suffering than would accompany the moral 
method of treatment, proceeds to a great extent from the 
yet untamed barbarism of our own minds ; just as it was 
the savageness of the hearts of our ancestors which led 
them to regard torture and burning as necessary in their 
administration of criminal justice. In proportion as the 
higher sentiments shall gain ascendency among men, seve- 
rity will be less in demand, and its inutility will be more 
generally perceived. The Americans, in their peniten* 
23 



206 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

tiaries, have set an admirable example to Europe in regard 
to criminal legislation. Their views still admit of improve- 
ment, but they have entered on the right path by which 
v success is to be attained. Dr. Caldwell of Lexington has 
offered them excellent counsel, which I hope they will ap- 
preciate and follow. 

Another objection is, that the views now advocated, even 
supposing them to be true, are Utopian, and cannot be car- 
ried into effect in the present condition of society. I deny 
the first branch of this objection ; but admit the second to 
be well founded. No system of morals which is true, can 
be Utopian — this term being understood to mean visionary 
and impracticable. But a true system may not be reducible 
to practice, on its first announcement, by a people who do 
not know one jot of its principles, and whose guides sedu- 
lously divert their minds from studying it. Christianity 
itself has not yet been generally practised ; but does any 
rational man on this account denounce it as Utopian and 
worthless 1 It would be folly to expect judges and juries 
to abandon the existing practice of criminal jurisprudence, 
and to adopt that which is here recommended, before they, 
and the society for whom they act, understand and approve 
of its principles ; and no one who bears in mind by what 
slow and laborious efforts truth makes its way, and how 
long a period is necessary before it can develope itself in 
practice, will expect any new system to triumph in the age 
in which it was first promulgated. I have frequently re- 
peated in this work, that, by the moral law, we cannot en- 
joy the full fruits even of our own intelligence and virtue, 
until our neighbours have been rendered as wise and ami- 
able as ourselves. No reasonable man, therefore, can ex- 
pect to see the principles expounded in this work, although 
true, "generally diffused and adopted in society, until the 
natural means of communicating a knowledge of them, and 
producing a general conviction of their truth and utility, 
shall have been perseveringly used for a period sufficient to 
accomplish this end. In the mean time, the established 
practices of society must be supported, if not respected ; 
and he is no friend to the real progress of mankind, who, 
the moment after he has sown his moral principles, would 
attempt to gather the fruit of them before he has allowed 
summer and autumn to bring the produce to maturity. The 



UNDER THE NATURAt LAWS 267 

rational philanthropist will zealously teach his principles, 
and introduce them into practice as favourable opportunities 
occur ; not doubting that he wiH thereby sooner accomplish 
his object, than by making premature attempts at realizing 
them, which must inevitably end in disappointment.* 

SECT. II. MORAL ADVANTAGES OP PUNISHMENT. 

After the intellect and moral sentiments have been 
brought to recognise the principles of the Divine adminis- 
tration, so much wisdom, benevolence, and justice, are dis- 
cernible in the natural laws, that our whole nature is ame- 
liorated in consequence of undergoing the punishments 
annexed to them. Punishment endured by one individual 
also serves to warn others against transgression. These 
facts afford another proof that a grand object of the arrange- 
ments of creation is the improvement of the moral and in- 
tellectual nature of man. So strikingly conspicuous, indeed, 
is the ameliorating influence of suffering, that many persons 
have supposed this to be the primary object for which it is 
sent ; a notion which, with great deference, I cannot help 
regarding as unfounded in principle, and dangerous in prac- 
tice. If evils and misfortunes are mere mercies of Provi- 
dence, it follows that a headach consequent on a debauch is 
not intended to prevent repetition of drunkenness, so much 
as to prepare the debauchee for " the invisible world ;" and 
that shipwreck in a crazy vessel is not designed to render 
the merchant more cautious, but to lead him to heaven. 

It is undeniable, that in innumerable instances pain and 

* The leading ideas expounded in this chapter have been 
most ably and eloquently followed out by Dr. Charles Caldwell, 
Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of 
Lexington, Kentucky, in his " New Views of Penitentiary Dis- 
cipline, and Moral Education and Reformation of Criminals," 
published at Philadelphia in 1829, and reprinted in the Phreno- 
logical Journal, vol. viii. pp. 385, 493. Mr. Simpson also has 
treated the subject with great ability in the same journal, vol. is. 
p. 431, and in the appendix to his work on the " Necessity of 
Popular Education," — a work in which he has expounded and 
applied many principles of the present treatise with much acute- 
ne«e and felicity of illustration. 



268 MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 

aorrow are the direct consequences of our own misconduct ; 
at the same time it is obviously benevolent in the Deity to 
render them beneficial directly, as a warning against future 
transgression, and indirectly, as a means of leading to the 
purification of the mind. /Nevertheless, if we shall ima- 
gine that in some instances it is dispensed as a direct pun- 
ishment for particular transgressions, and in others only on 
account of sin in general, and with the view of ameliorating 
the spirit of the sufferer, we shall ascribe inconsistency to 
the Creator, and expose ourselves to the danger of attributing 
our own afflictions to his favour, and those of others to his 
wrath ; thus fostering in our minds self-conceit and un- 
charitableness. Individuals who entertain the belief that 
bad health, worldly ruin, and sinister accidents, befalling 
them, are not punishments for infringement of the laws of 
nature, but particular manifestations of the love of the Cre- 
ator towards themselves, make slight inquiry into the natu- 
ral causes of their miseries, and bestow few efforts to remove 
them. In consequence, the chastisements endured by them, 
neither correct their own conduct, nor deter others from 
committing similar transgressions. Some religious sects, 
who espouse these notions, literally act upon them, and re- 
fuse to inoculate with the cow-pox to escape contagion, or 
take other means of avoiding natural calamities. Regard- 
ing these as dispensations of Providence sent to prepare 
them for a future world, they conceive that the more that 
befall them the better. Farther, these ideas, besides being 
repugnant to the common sense of mankind, are at variance 
with the principle that the world is arranged so as to favour 
virtue and discountenance vice ; because favouring virtue 
means obviously that the favoured virtuous will positively 
enjoy more happiness, and negatively suffer fewer misfor- 
tunes, than the vicious. The view, therefore, now advo- 
cated, appears less exceptionable, viz. that punishment serves 
a double purpose — directly to warn us against transgres- 
sion, and indirectly, (when rightly apprehended,) to subdue 
our lower propensities, and purify and vivify our moral and 
intellectual powers. 

Bishop Butler coincides in this interpretation of natural 
calamities. " Now," says he, " in the present state, all 
which, we enjoy, and a great part of what we suffer, is put in 



MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 269 

eur men power.* For pleasure and pain are the consequences 
of our actions ; and we are endued by the Author of our 
nature with capacities of foreseeing these consequences." 
" I know not that we have any one kind or degree of en- 
joyment, but by the means of our own actions. And, by 
prudence and care, we may, for the most part, pass our days 
in tolerable ease and quiet : or, on the contrary, we may, 
by rashness, ungoverned passion, wilfulness, or even by negli- 
gence, make ourselves as miserable as ever we please. And 
many do please to make themselves extremely miserable ; 
t. e. they do what they knew beforehand will render them 
so. They follow those ways, the fruit of which they know, 
by instruction, example, experience, will be disgrace, and 
poverty, and sickness, and untimely death. This every 
one observes to be the general course of things ; though it 
is to be allowed, we cannot rind by experience, that all our 
sufferings are owing to our own follies." — Analogy, part i. 
ch. 2. In accordance with this last remark, I have treated 
of hereditary diseases ; and evils resulting from earthquakes, 
volcanoes, hurricanes, and other convulsions of nature, may 
be added to the same class. 

It has been objected that such punishments as the break- 
ing of an arm by a fall, are often so disproportionately se- 
vere, that, in appointing them, the Creator must have had 
in view some other and more important object than that of 
making them serve as mere motives to the observance of the 
physical laws ; and that that object must be to influence the 
mind of the sufferer, and draw his attention to concerns of 
higher import. 

In answer I remark, that the human body is liable to de- 
struction by severe injuries ; and that the degree of suffer- 
ing, in general, bears a just proportion to the danger con- 
nected with the transgression. Thus, a slight surfeit is 
attended only with headach or general uneasiness, because 
it does not endanger life ; a fall on any muscular part of the 
body is followed either with no pain, or with only a slight 
indisposition, for the reason that it is not seriously injurious 
to life ; but when a leg or arm is broken, the pain is in- 
tensely severe, because the bones of these limbs stand high 
ill the scale of utility to man. The human body is so 

* These words are printed in italics in the original, 
23* 



270 MORAL- AD VANTAGES OF PUNISHMEXT 

framed that it may fall nine times and suffer little damage, 
but the tenth time a limb may be broken, which will entail 
a painful chastisement. By this arrangement the mind is 
kept alive to danger to such an extent as to insure general 
safety, while at the same time it is not overwhelmed with 
terror by punishments too severe and too frequently repeat- 
ed. In particular states of the body, a slight wound may 
be followed by inflammation and death ; but these are the 
results not simply of the wound, but of a previous derange- 
ment of health, occasioned by departures from the organic 
laws. 

On the whole, therefore, no adequate reason appears for 
regarding the consequences of physical accidents in any 
other light than as direct punishments for infringement of 
the natural laws, and indirectly as a means of accomplish- 
ing moral and religious improvement. 

In the preceding chapters we have obtained glimpses of 
some of the sanctions of the moral law, which may be 
briefly recapitulated. If we obey it, many desirable results 
ensue. In the first place, we enjoy the highest gratifica- 
tions of which our nature is susceptible, in habitual and 
sustained activity of our noblest faculties. Secondly, We 
become objects of esteem and affection to our fellow men, 
and enjoy exalted social pleasure. Thirdly, Whatever we 
undertake, being projected in harmony with the course of 
nature, will prosper. Fourthly, By observing the moral 
law, we shall place ourselves in the most favourable condi- 
tion for obeying the organic law, and then enjoy health of 
body and buoyancy of mind. Fifthly, By obeying the mo- 
ral, intellectual, and organic laws, we shall place ourselves 
in the best condition for observing the physical laws, and 
thereby reap countless benefits conferred by them. 

To perceive, on the other hand, the penalties by which 
the Creator punishes infringements of the moral law, we 
need only to reverse the picture. There is denial of that 
elevated, refined, and steady enjoyment, which springs from 
the supreme activity of the moral sentiments and intellect, 
and from the perception of the harmony between them and 
the institutions of creation. By infringing the moral law 
we become objects of dislike and aversion to our fellow 
men ; and this carries denial of gratification to many of our 



HORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUNISHMENT. 271 

social faculties. Whatever we undertake in opposition to 
the moral law, being an enterprise against the course of 
nature, cannot succeed ; and its fruits must therefore be 
disappointment and vexation. Inattention to the moral 
and intellectual law incapacitates us for obedience to the 
organic and physical laws ; and sickness, pain, and poverty- 
overtake us. The whole scheme of creation, then, appears 
constituted for the purpose of enforcing obedience to the 
moral law : virtue, religion, and happiness, seem to be 
founded in the inherent constitution of the human faculties, 
and the adaptation of the external world to them ; and not 
to depend on the will, the fancies, or the desires of man. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS 

Having now unfolded several of the natural laws, and 
their effects, and having also attempted to show that each 
is inflexible and independent in itself, and requires absolute 
obedience, (so that a man who neglects the physical law will 
suffer the physical punishment, although he may be very 
attentive to the moral law; that one who infringes the 
organic law will suffer organic punishment, although he 
may obey the physical law ; and that a person who violates 
the moral law will suffer the moral punishment, although 
he should observe the other two ;) I proceed to show the 
mutual relationship among these laws, and to adduce some 
instances of their joint operation. 

The defective administration of justice is a fertile source 
of human suffering in all countries ; yet it is surprising how 
rude are the arrangements which are still in use, even in 
a free and enlightened country, for accomplishing this im- 
portant end. 

A Scotch Jury in a civil cause, even in Edinburgh, fre- 
quently presents the following particulars for observation. 
It consists of twelve men, eight or ten of whom are collect- 



*72 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

ed from the country, within a distance of twenty or thirty 
miles of the capital. These individuals hold the plough, 
wield the hammer or_ the hatchet, or carry on some other 
useful and respectable but laborious occupation, for six davs 
m the week. Their muscular systems are in constant ex- 
ercise, and their brains are rarely called on for any areat 
exertion. They are not accustomed to read, beyoncf the 
Bible and a weekly newspaper ; they are still less in the 
habit of thinking ; and in general they live much in the 
open air. 

In this condition they are placed in a jury-box at ton 
m the morning, after having travelled probablv from seven 
to twenty-five miles to reach the court : counsel address 
long speeches to them ; numerous witnesses are examined • 
and the cause is branched out into complicated details of 
fact, and wire-worm distinctions in argument. The court 
is a small and ill-ventilated apartment, and in consequence 
is generally crowded and over-heated. Without beina al- " 
lowed to breathe fresh air or to take exercise or food, they 
are confined to their seats till eight or ten in the evening — 
when they retire to return a verdict, by which they may 
dispose of thousands of pounds, and in which they are re- 
quired by law to be unanimous. 

There is here a tissue of errors which could not exist for 
a day if the natural laws were generally understood. First, 
the daily habits and occupations of such jurors rendered 
their brains inactive, and their intellects consequently in- 
capable of attending to, and comprehending, complicated 
cases of fact and argument. Secondly, their memoirs can- 
not retain the facts, while their skill in penmanship and 
literature is not sufficient to enable them to take notes ; and 
their reflecting faculties are not capable of generalizing 
Their education and daily pursuits, therefore, do not fur- 
nish them with principles of thinking, and power of mental 
action, sufficient to enable them to unravel the web of in- 
tricacies presented to their understandings. Thirdly, pro- 
tracted confinement in a close apartment, amidst vitiated 
air, operates injuriously on the most vivacious tempera- 
merits :— on such men it has tenfold effect in lowering the 
action of the brain and inducing mental incapacity, because 
it is diametrically opposed to their usual condition Add to 
these considerations, that occasionally a jury trial la&ts two, 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 273 

three, or even four days, each of which presents a repetition 
of the circumstances here described ; and then the reader 
may judge whether such jurors are the fittest instruments, 
and in the best condition, for disposing of the fortunes of a 
people who boast of their love of justice, and of their admi- 
rable institutions for obtaining it. 

The influence of the bodily condition of a human being 
on his mental capacity seems never to have entered the 
imaginations of our legislators as a matter of importance in 
the administration of justice. In the circuit courts of 
Scotland, the judges frequently sit for several days in suc- 
cession in a crowded apartment, intently engaged in busi- 
ness, from ten o'clock in the morning till eight, ten, or 
twelve at night, without any proper intermission or exer- 
cise. They go to their hotel at these late hours, dine, take 
wine, retire to bed, and next morning resume their seats on 
the bench. Now, by the laws of their nature, which never 
cease to operate, the effect of this conduct is to impair the 
vigour of the moral and intellectual organs, and, by con- 
straint, want of exercise, and obstruction of the bodily 
functions, to irritate and exalt the activity of the animal 
organs ; so that, at the close of a circuit, even the strongest 
and most estimable and talented individual is physically 
deteriorated, and mentally incapacitated for the distribution 
of justice, compared with himself when he began his labours. 
It is accordingly matter of observation, that in proportion as 
a long and heavy session in circuit advances, irritability, 
impatience, and intellectual obscuration appear in the judges. 
The accused who go to trial first, therefore, have a far 
higher chance of obtaining justice, than those who appear 
last on the roll. 

In these instances there are evident infringements of the 
organic and moral laws ; and the combined result is the 
maladministration of justice, of which the country so loudly 
complains. The proper remedies will be found in educating 
the people more effectually, in training them to the exer- 
cise of their mental faculties, and in observing the organic 
laws in the structure of court-rooms, and in the proceedings 
that take place within them. 

Another example of the combined operation of the na- 
tural laws is afforded by the great fires which occurred in 
Edinburgh in November 1824, when the Parliament Square 



274 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

and a part of the High Street were consumed. That cala« 
mity may be viewed in the following light : — The Creator 
constituted England and Scotland with such qualities, and 
placed them in such relationship, that the inhabitants of 
both kingdoms would be most happy in acting towards each 
other, and pursuing their separate vocations, under the su- 
premacy of the moral sentiments. We have lived to see 
this practised, and to reap the reward. But the ancestors 
of the two nations did not believe in this constitution of the 
world, and they preferred acting according to the sugges- 
tions of the propensities ; that is to say, they waged furious 
wars, and committed wasting devastations on each other's 
properties and lives. It is obvious from history, that the 
two nations were equally ferocious, and delighted recipro- 
cally in each other's calamities. This was clearly a violent 
infringement of the moral law ; and one effect of it was to 
render the possession of a stronghold an object of paramount 
importance. The hill on which the Old Town of Edin- 
burgh is built, was naturally surrounded by marshes, and 
presented a perpendicular front to the west, capable of 
being crowned with a castle. It was appropriated with 
avidity, and the metropolis of Scotland was founded there, 
obviously and undeniably under the inspiration purely of 
the animal faculties. It was fenced round with ramparts, 
built to exclude the fierce warriors who then inhabited the 
country lying south of the Tweed, and also to protect the 
inhabitants from the feudal banditti who infested their own 
soil. The space within the walls, however, was limited and 
narrow ; the attractions to the spot were numerous ; and to 
make the most of it, our ancestors erected the enormous 
masses of high, confused, and crowded buildings which now 
compose the High Street, and the wynds, or alleys, on its 
two sides. These abodes, moreover, were constructed, to 
a great extent, of timber ; for not only the joists and floors, 
but the partitions between the rooms, were made of mas- 
sive wood. Our ancestors did all this in the perfect know- 
ledge of the physical law, that wood ignited by fire not 
only is consumed itself, but envelopes in inevitable destruc- 
tion every combustible object within its influence. Far- 
ther, their successors, even when the necessity for close 
building had ceased, persevered in the original error ; and, 
though well knowing that every year added to the age of 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 275 

such fabrics, increased their liability to burn, they not only 
allowed them to be occupied as shops filled with paper, spi- 
rits, and other highly combustible materials, but let the up- 
per floors for brothels, — introducing thereby into the heart 
of this magazine of conflagration the most reckless and im- 
moral of mankind. The consummation was the two tre- 
mendous fires of November 1824 (the one originating in a 
whisky-cellar, and the other in a garret-brothel), which 
consumed the Parliament Square and a portion of the 
High Street, destroying property to the extent of many 
thousands of pounds, and spreading misery and ruin over a 
considerable part of the population of Edinburgh. Won- 
der, consternation, and awe, were forcibly excited at the 
vastness of the calamity ; and in the sermons that were 
preached, and the dissertations that were written upon it, 
much was said of the inscrutable ways of Providence, that 
sent such visitations on the people, enveloping the innocent 
and the guilty in one common sweep of destruction. 

According to the exposition of the ways of Providence 
which I have ventured to give, there was nothing wonderful, 
nothing vengeful, nothing arbitrary, in the whole occur- 
rence. The only reason for surprise was, that it did not take 
p4ace generations before. The necessity for these fabrics 
originated in gross violation of the moral law ; they were 
constructed in high contempt of the physical law ; and, lat- 
terly, the moral law was set at defiance, by placing in them 
inhabitants abandoned to the worst habits of recklessness 
and intoxication. The Creator had bestowed on men 
faculties to perceive all this, and to avoid the calamity, 
whenever they chose to exert them ; and the destruction 
that ensued was the punishment of following the propensi- 
ties, in preference to the dictates of intellect and morality. 
The object of the destruction, as a natural event, was to 
lead men to avoid repetition of the offences : but the 
principles of the divine government are not yet compre- 
hended. Acquisitiveness whispers that more money may be 
made of houses consisting of five or six floors under one 
roof, than of houses consisting of only two or three ; and 
erections the very counterparts of the former, have since 
reared tneir heads on the spot where the others stood, and, 
nooner or later, they also will be overtaken by the natural 
laws, which never slumber or sleep. 



276 ON THE COMBJNED OFERATION 

The true method of arriving at a sound view of~calami 
ties of this kind, is to direct our attention, in the first in- 
stance, to the law of nature, from the operation of which 
they have originated ; then to find out the uses and advan- 
tages of that law, when observed ; and to discover whether 
or not the evils under consideration have arisen from viola- 
tion of it. In the present instance, we ought never to lose 
sight of the fact, that the houses in question stood erect, and 
the furniture in safety, by the very same law of gravitation 
which made them topple to the foundation when it was 
infringed ; and that mankind enjoy all the benefits which 
result from the combustibility of the timber as fuel, by the 
very same law t£hich makes it, when unduly ignited, the 
food of a destructive conflagration. 

This instance affords a striking illustration of the manner 
in which the physical and organic laws are constituted in 
harmony with, and in subserviency to, the moral law. We 
see clearly that the leading cause of the construction of 
such erections as the houses in the Old Town of Edinburgh 
(with the deprivation of free air, and liability to combustion 
that attend them) arose from the excessive predominance 
of Oombativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, and Ac- 
quisitiveness, in our ancestors ; and although the ancient 
personages who erected these monuments of animal supre- 
macy had no conception that, in doing so, they were laying 
the foundations of a severe punishment to themselves and 
their posterity, — yet, when we compare the comforts and 
advantages that would have accompanied dwellings con- 
structed under the inspiration of Benevolence, Ideality, and 
enlightened Intellect, with the contaminating, debasing, 
and dangerous effects of their actual workmanship, we per- 
ceive most clearly that our ancestors were really the in- 
struments of chastising their own transgressions, and of 
transmitting that chastisement to their posterity so long as 
the animal supremacy shall be prolonged. 

Another example may be given. Men, by uniting under 
one leader, may, in virtue of the social law, acquire prodi- 
gious advantages to themselves, which singly they could 
not obtain ; and, as formerly stated, the condition under 
which the benefits of that law are permitted is, that the 
leader shall know and obey the natural laws connected with 
his enterprize : If he neglect these, then the same principle 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 277 

which gives the social body the benefit of his observing 
them, involves it in the punishment of his infringement ; 
and this is just, because, under the natural law, the leader 
must necessarily be chosen by his followers, and they are 
responsible for not attending to his natural qualities. Some 
illustrations of the consequences of neglect of this law may 
be stated, in whic h the mixed operation of the physical and 
moral laws will appear. 

During the French war, a squadron of English ships was 
sent to the Baltic with military stores, and, in returning 
home up the North Sea, they were beset, for two or three 
days, by a thick fog. It was about the middle of Decem- 
ber, and no correct knowledge of their exact situation was 
possessed. Some of the commanders proposed lying-to all 
night, and proceeding only during day, to avoid running 
ashore unawares. The commodore was exceedingly at- 
tached to his wife and family, and, stating his determination 
to pass Christmas with them in England if possible, ordered 
that the ships should sail straight on their voyage. The 
very same night they all struck on a sand-bank off the coast 
of Holland ; two ships of the line were dashed to pieces, 
and every man on board perished. The third ship, drawing 
less water, was forced over the bank by the waves and 
stranded on the beach ; the crew was saved, but led to a 
captivity of many year's duration. Now, these vessels were 
destroyed under the physical laws ; but this calamity owed 
its origin to the predominance of the animal over the moral 
and intellectual faculties in the commodore. The gratifica- 
tion which he sought to obtain was individual and selfish ; 
and, if his Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, 
and Intellect, had been as alert as his domestic affections, 
and carried as forcibly home to his mind the welfare of the 
men under his charge as that of his own family ; nay, if 
these faculties had been sufficiently alive to see the danger 
to which he exposed even his own life, and the happiness 
of his wife and children, — he never could have followed the 
precipitate course which consigned himself, and so many 
brave men, to a watery grave, within a few hours after his 
resolution was formed. 

Some years ago, the Ogle Castle East Indiaman was of- 
fered a pilot coming up the Channel, but the captain refused 
assistance, professing his own skill to be sufficient. In a 
24 



278 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

few hours the ship ran aground on a sand-bank, and every 
human being on board perished in the waves. This acci- 
dent also arose from the physical laws, but the unfavourable 
operation of it sprang from Self-Esteem, pretending to 
knowledge which the intellect did not possess ; and, as it is 
only by employing the latter that obedience can be yielded to 
the physical laws, the destruction of the ship was indirectly 
the consequence of the infringement of the moral and in 
tellectual laws. 

An old sailor, whom I met on the Queensferry passage, 
told me, that he had been nearly fifty years at sea, and once 
was in a fifty gun ship in the West Indies. The captain, 
he said, was a " fine man ;" he knew the climate, and fore- 
saw a hurricane coming, by its natural signs ; — on one 
occasion in particular, he struck the topmasts, lowered the 
yards, lashed the guns, and made each man supply himself 
with food for thirty-six hours ; and scarcely was this done 
when the hurricane came. The ship lay for four hours on 
her beam-ends in the water, but all was prepared ; the men 
were kept in vigour during the storm, and fit for every 
exertion ; the ship at last righted, suffered little damage, 
and proceeded on her voyage. The fleet which she con- 
voyed was dispersed, and a great number of the ships 
foundered. Here we see the benefits accruing from the 
supremacy of the moral and intellectual faculties, and dis- 
cover to what a surprising extent these present a guarantee 
even against the fury of the physical elements in their 
highest state of agitation. 

A striking illustration of the kind of protection afforded 
by high moral and intellectual qualities, even amidst the 
most desperate physical circumstances, is furnished by the 
following letter written by the late Admiral Lord Exmouth 
to a friend. " Why do you ask me to relate the wreck of 
the Dutton 1" says his Lordship. " Susan (Lady Exmouth) 
and I were driving to a dinner-party at Plymouth, when 
we saw crowds running to the Hoe ; and learning it was a 
wreck, I left the carriage to take her on, and joined the 
crowd. I saw the loss of the whole five or six hundred 
men was inevitable without somebody to direct them, for the 
last officer was pulled on shore as I reached the surf. I 
urged their return, which was refused ; upon which I made 
the rope fast to myself, and was hauled through the surf on 






OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 279 

board, — established order, and did not leave her until even; 
goul was saved but the boatswain, who would not go beforu 
me. I got safe, and so did he, and the ship went all to 
pieces." 

Indeed, there is reason to believe that the human intel- 
lect will, in time, be able, by means of science and obser- 
vation, to arrive at a correct anticipation of approaching 
storms, and thus obtain protection against their effects. 
The New Zealanders, it is said, predict the changes of the 
weather with extraordinary skill. " One evening, when 
Captain Cruise and some of his friends were returning 
from a long excursion up one of the rivers, although the 
sky was at the time without a cloud, a native, who sat in 
the boat with them, remarked that there would be heavy 
rain the next day ; a prediction which they were the more 
inclined to believe by finding, when they returned on board 
the ship, that the barometer had fallen very much, and 
which the deluge of the following morning completely con- 
firmed."* 

The utility of the marine barometer, or the sympieso- 
meter, in indicating approaching storms, is strikingly shown 
by the following extract from the Edinburgh Philosophical 
Journal. 

" The correspondent (Mr. Stevenson, civil engineer) to 
whom we are indebted for the notice regarding the Scotch 
fisheries, inserted in this number (p. 129,) informs us, that 
having occasion, towards the conclusion of his voyage, in 
the beginning of September last, to visit the Isle of Man, 
he beheld the interesting spectacle of about three hundred 
large fishing boats, each from fifteen to twenty tons' bur- 
den, leaving their various harbours at that island in an ap- 
parently fine afternoon, and standing direetly out to sea, 
with the intention of prosecuting the fishery under night. 
He at the same time remarked, that both the common ma- 
rine barometer, and Adie's sympiesometer, which were in 
the cabin of his vessel, indicated an approaching change ol 
weather, the mercury falling to 29.5 inches. It became 
painful, therefore, to witness the scene ; more than a thou- 
sand industrious fishermen, lulled to security by the fine- 
ness of the day, scattering their little barks over the face 

* Library of Entertaining Knowledge ; The New Zealanders, 
p 381 



280 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

of the ocean, and thus rushing forward to" imminent dan- 
ger, or probable destruction. At sunset, accordingly, the 
sky became cloudy and threatening ; and in the course of 
the night it blew a very hard gale, which afterward con- 
tinued for three days successively. This gale completely 
dispersed the fleet of boats, and it was not without the ut- 
most difficulty that many of them reached the various 
creeks of the island. It is believed no lives were lost on 
this occasion ; but the boats were damaged, much tackle 
was destroyed, and the men were unnecessarily exposed to 
danger and fatigue. During the same storm, it may be re- 
marked, thirteen vessels were either totally lost or stranded 
between the Isle of Anglesey and St. Bee's Head in Lan- 
cashire. Mr. Stevenson remarks how much it is to be re- 
gretted that the barometer is so little in use in the mer- 
cantile mind of Great Britain, compared with the trading 
vessels of Holland ; and observes, that though the common 
marine barometer is perhaps too cumbersome for the ordinary 
run of fishing and coasting vessels, yet Adie's sympiesometer 
is so extemely portable, that it may be carried even in a 
Manx boat. Each lot of such vessels has a commodore, un- 
der whose orders the fleet sails ; it would therefore be a most 
desirable thing that a sympiesometer should be attached to 
each commodore's boat, from which a pre-concerted signal 
or an expected gale or change of weather, as indicated by 
the sympiesometer, could easily be given." — Edin. Phil. 
Jour. ii. 196. 

Dr. Neil Arnot, in mentioning the great utility of the ma- 
rine barometer, states that he himself was " one of a nume- 
rous crew who probably owed their preservation to its almost 
miraculous warning. It was in a southern latitude. The 
sun had just set with placid appearance, closing a beautiful 
afternoon, and the usual mirth of the evening watch was 
proceeding, when the captain's order came to prepare with 
all haste for a storm. The barometer had began to fall with 
appalling rapidity. As yet, the oldest sailors had not per- 
ceived even a threatening in the sky, and were surprised at 
the extent and hurry of the preparations ; but the required 
measures were not completed, when a more awful hurricane 
burst upon them than the most experienced had ever braved." 
" In that awful night, but for the little tube of mercury 
which had given the warning, neither the strength of the 



OF THE NATUR1L LAWS. 281 

noble ship, nor the skill and energies of the commander, 
could have saved one man to tell the tale."* 

One of the most instructive illustrations of the connexion 
between the different natural laws is presented in Captain 
Lyon's Brief Narrative of an unsuccessful attempt to reach 
Repulse Bay, in his Majesty's ship Griper, in the year 1824. 

Captain Lyon mentions, that he sailed in the Griper on 
13th June 1824, in company with his Majesty's surveying 
vessel Snap, as a store -tender. The Griper was 180 tons 
burden, and " drew 16 feet 1 inch abaft, and 15 feet 10 inches 
forward." On the 26th, he " was sorry to observe that the 
Griper, from her great depth and sharpness forward, pitched 
very deeply." — She sailed so ill, that, " in a stiff breeze, and 
with studding-sails set, he was unable to get above four knots 
an hour out of her, and she was twice whirled round in an eddy 
in the Pentland Firth, from which she could not escape." 
On the 3d July, he says, " being now fairly at sea, I caused 
the Snap to take us in tow, which I had declined doing as 
we passed up the east coast of England, although our little 
companion had much difficulty in keeping under sufficiently 
low sail for us, and by noon we had passed the " Stack 
Back." " The Snap was of the greatest assistance, the 
Griper frequently towing at the rate of five knots, in cases 
where she would not have gone three." — " On the forenoon 
of the 16th, the Snap came and took us in tow; but, at 
noon on the 17th, strong breezes and a heavy swell obliged 
us again to cast off. We scudded while able, but our depth 
in the water caused us to ship so many heavy seas, that I 
most reluctantly brought to under storm stay-sails. This 
was rendered exceedingly mortifying, by observing that our 
companion was perfectly dry, and not affected by the sea." 
" When our stores were all on board, we found our narrow 
decks completely crowded by them. The gangways, fore- 
castle, and abaft the mizen-mast, were rilled with casks., 
hawsers, whale-lines, and stream-cables, while on our strait- 
ened lower decks we were obliged to place casks and other 
stores, in every part but that allotted to the ship's company's 
mess-tables ; and even my cabin had a quantity of things 
stowed away in it." — " It may be proper to mention, that 
the Fury and Hecla, which were enabled to stow three years' 

Aniot's Elements of Physics, i. 350.. 

24* 



28$ ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

provisions, were each exactly double the size of the Griper, 
and the Griper carried two years' and a-half *s provisions." 

Having arrived in the Polar Seas, they were visited by a 
storm, of which Captain Lyon gives the following descrip- 
tion : — " We soon, however, came to fifteen fathoms, and I 
kept right away, but had then only ten ; when, being unable 
to see far around us, and observing, from the whiteness of 
the water, that we were on a bank, I rounded to at 7 a. m., 
and tried to bring up with the starboard-anchor and seventy 
fathoms chain, but the stiff breeze and heavy sea caused this 
to part in half an hour, and we again made sail to the north- 
eastward ; but, finding we came suddenly to seven fathoms, 
and that the ship could not possibly work out again, as she 
would not face the sea or keep steerage- way on her, I most 
reluctantly brought her up with three bowers and a stream 
in succession, yet not before we had shoaled to five and a 
half. This was between 8 and 9 a. m., the ship pitching 
bows under, and a tremendous sea running. At noon, the 
starboard-bower anchor parted, but the others held. 

" As there was every reason to fear the falling of the tide, 
which we knew to be from twelve to fifteen feet on this 
coast, and in that case the total destruction of the ship, I 
caused the long-boat to be hoisted out, and with the four 
smaller ones, to be stored to a certain extent with arms and 
provisions. The officers drew lots for their respective boats, 
and the ship's company were stationed to them. The long- 
boat having been filled full of stores which could not be put 
below, it became requisite to throw them overboard, as there 
was no room for them on our very small and crowded decks, over 
which heavy seas were constantly sweeping. In making these 
preparations for taking to the boats, it was evident to all, 
that the long-boat was the only one that had the slightest 
chance of living under the lee of the ship, should she be 
wrecked ; but every man and officer drew his lot with the 
greatest composure, though two of our boats would have 
swamped the instant they were lowered. Yet, such was 
the noble feeling of those around me, that it was evident, 
that, had I ordered the boats in question to be manned, their 
crews would have entered them without a murmur. In the 
afternoon, on the weather clearing a little, we discovered a 
low beach all around astern of us, on which the surf was 
running to an avj ful height, and it appeared evident that no 



OF THK NATURAL LAWS. 283 

human power could save us. At 3 p. m., the tide had fallen 
to twenty-two feet, {only six more than we drew,) and the 
ship, having been lifted by a tremendous sea, struck with great 
violence the length of her kecL This we naturally conceived 
was the forerunner of her total wreck, and we stood in rea- 
diness to. take the boats, and endeavour to hang under her 
lee. She continued to strike with sufficient force to have 
burst any less fortified vessel, at intervals of a few minutes 
whenever an unusual heavy sea passed us. And, as the 
water was so shallow, these might be called breakers rather 
than waves, for each in passing burst with great force over 
our gangways, and, as every sea " topped," our decks were 
continually, and frequently deeply, flooded. All hands took 
a little refreshment, for some had scarcely been below for 
twenty-four hours, and I had not been in bed for three 
nights. Although few or none of us had any idea that we 
should survive the gale, we did not think that our comforts 
should be entirely neglected, and an order was therefore 
given to the men to put on their best and warmest clothing, 
to enable them to support life as long as possible. Every 
man*, therfore, brought his bag on deck, and dressed himself; 
and in the fine athletic forms which stood before me, I did not 
see one muscle quiver, nor the slightest sign of alarm. The 
officers each secured some useful instrument about them, 
for the purpose of observation, although it was acknowledged 
by all that not the slightest hope remained. And now that 
every thing in our power had been done, I called all hands 
aft, and to a merciful God offered prayers for our preserva- 
tion. I thanked every one for his excellent conduct, and 
cautioned them, as we should, in all probability, soon appear 
before our Maker, to enter his presence as men resigned to 
their fate. We then all sat down in groups, and, sheltered 
from the wash of the sea by whatever we could find, many 
of us endeavored to obtain a little sleep. Never, perhaps, 
was witnessed a finer scene than on the deck of my little 
ship, when all the hope of life had left us. Noble as the 
character of the British sailor is always allowed to be in 
cases of danger, yet I did not believe it to be possible, that, 
amongst forty-one persons, not one repining word should 
have been uttered. The officers sat about, wherever they 
could find a shelter from the sea, and the men lay down 
conversing with each other with the most perfect calmness. 



284 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

Each was at peace with his neighbour and all the world, 
and I am firmly persuaded that the resignation which was 
then shown to the will of the Almighty, was the means ol 
obtaining his mercy. At about 6 p. m., the rudder, which 
had already received some very heavy blows, rose and broke 
up the after-lockers, and this was the last severe shock that 
the ship received. We found by the well that she made no 
water, and by dark she struck no more. God was merciful 
to us, and the tide, almost miraculously fell no lower. At 
dark heavy rain fell, but was borne in patience, for it beat 
down the gale, and brought with it a light air from the 
northward. At 9 p. m., the the water had deepened to five 
fathoms. The ship kept off the ground all night, and our 
exhausted crew obtained some broken rest." — P. 76. 

In humble gratitude for his deliverance, he called the 
place, " The Bay of God's mercy," and " offered up thanks 
and praises to God, for the mercy he had shown to us. 

On 12th September, they had another gale of wind, with 
cutting showers of sleet, and a heavy sea. " At such a mo- 
ment as this" says Captain Lyon. " we had fresh cause to de- 
plore the extreme dulness of the Griper's sailing ; for though 
almost any otlier vessel would have worked off this lea-shore^ 
we made little or no progress on a wind, but remained actually 
pitching^ forecastle under, with scarcely steerage-way, to pre- 
serve which, I was ultimately obliged to keep her nearly two 
points off the wind."— P. 98. 

Another storm overtook them, which is described as fol- 
lows : — " Never shall I forget the dreariness of this most 
anxious night. Our ship pitched at such rate, that it was 
not possible to stand, even below ; while on deck we were 
unable to move, without holding by ropes, which were 
stretched from side to side. The drift snow flew in such 
sharp heavy flakes, that we could not look to windward, 
and it froze on deck to above a foot in depth. The sea 
made incessant breaches quite fore and aft the ship, and 
the temporary warmth it gave while it washed over us, was 
most painfully checked by its almost immediately freezing 
on our clothes. To these discomforts were added the hor- 
rible uncertainty as to whether the cables would hold until 
daylight, and the conviction also, that if they failed us, we 
should instantly be dashed to pieces, the wind blowing di- 
rectly to the quarter in which we knew the shore must lie 



OP THE NATURAL LAWS. 285 

Again, should they continue to hold us, we feared, by the 
ship's complaining so much forward, that the bits would be 
torn up, or that she would settle down at her anchors, over- 
powered by some of the tremendous seas which burst over 
her. At dawn on the 13th, thirty minutes after four a. m., 
we found that the best bower cable had parted ; and, as the 
gale now blew with terrific violence from the north, there 
was little reason to expeet that the other anchors would hold 
»ong ; or, if they did, we pitched so deeply, and lifted so great 
a body of water each time, that it was feared the windlass and 
forecastle would be torn up, or she must go down at her an- 
chors : although the ports were knocked out, and a conside- 
rable portion oi the bulwark cut away, she could scarcely 
discharge one sea before shipping another, and the decks 
were frequently flooded to an alarming depth. 

" At six a. m. all farther doubts on this particular account 
were at an end; for, having received two overwhelming 
seas, both the other cables went at the same moment, and 
we were left helpless, without anchors, or any means of 
saving ourselves, should the shore, as we had every reason 
to expect, be close astern. And here, again, I had the 
happiness of witnessing the same general tranquility as was 
shown on the 1st of September. There was no outcry that 
the cables were gone ; but my friend Mr. Manico, with Mr. 
Carr the gunner, came aft as soon as they recovered their 
legs, and, in the lowest whisper, informed me that the cables 
had all parted. The ship, in trending to the wind, lay quite 
down on her broadside, and, as it then became evident that 
nothing held her, and that she was quite helpless, each man 
instinctively took his station ; while the seamen at the leads, 
having secured themselves as well as was in their power, 
repeated their soundings, on which our preservation depend- 
ed, with as much composure as if we had been entering a 
friendly port. Here, again, that Almighty power ? which 
had before so mercifully preserved us, granted us his pro- 
tection."-— P. 100. 

Nothing can be more interesting and moving than this 
narrative ; it displays a great predominance of the moral 
sentiments and intellect, but sadly unenlightened as to the 
natural laws. I have quoted, in Captain Lyon's own words, 
his description of the Griper, loaded to such excess that 
she drew sixteen feet water — that she was incapable of sail- 



886 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

ing^-that she was whirled round in an eddy in the Pentland 
Frith— and that seas broke over her which did not wet the 
deck of the little Snap, not half her size. Captain Lyon 
knew all this, and also the roughness of the climate to 
which he was steering ; and, with these outrages of the 
physical law staring him in the face, he proceeded on his 
voyage, without addressing, so far as appears from his nar- 
rative, one remonstrance to the Lords of the Admiralty on 
the subject of this infringement of the principles of com- 
mon prudence. My opinion is, that Captain Lyon was not 
blind to the errors committed in his equipment, or to their 
probable consequences ; but thaHiis powerful sentiment of 
Veneration, combined with Cautiousness and Love of Ap- 
probation, (misdirected in this instance), deprived him of 
courage to complain to the Admiralty, through fear of giving 
offence ; or that, if he did complain, they prevented him 
from stating the fact in his narrative. To the tempestuous 
north he sailed ; and his greatest dangers were clearly re- 
ferrible to the very infringements of the physical laws 
which he describes. When the tide ebbed, his ship reached 
to within six feet of the bottom, and, in the hollow of every 
wave, struck with great violence ; but she was loaded at 
least four feet too deeply, by his own account ; so that, if he 
had done his duty, she would have had four feet of addi- 
tional water, or ten feet in all, between her and the bottom, 
even in the hollow of the wave — a matter of the very last 
importance in such a critical situation. Indeed, with four 
feet more water she would not have struck ; besides if less 
loaded, she would have struck less violently. Again, when 
pressed upon a lee shore, her incapability of sailing was a 
most obvious cause of danger. In short, if Providence is 
to be regarded as the cause of these calamities, there is no 
impropriety which it is possible for man to commit, that may 
not, on the same principles, be charged against the Creator. 
But the moral law again shines forth in delightful splen- 
dour in the conduct of Captain Lyon and his crew, when in 
the most forlorn condition. Piety, resignation, and manly 
resolution, then animated them to the noblest efforts. On 
the principle, that the power of accommodating our conduct 
to the natural laws depends on the activity of the moral 
sentiments and intellect, and that the more numerous the 
faculties that are excited, the greater is the energy commu 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 287 

nicated to the whole system, I would say that while Captain 
Lyon's sufferings were, in a great degree, brought on by his 
infringements of the physical laws, his escape was greatly 
promoted by his obedience to the moral law ; and that Pro- 
vidence, in the whole occurrences, proceeded on the broad 
and general principle, which sends advantage uniformly as 
the reward of obedience, and evil as the punishment of in 
fringement, of every particular law of creation. 

That storms and tempests have been instituted for some 
benevolent end, may, perhaps be acknowledged when their 
causes and effects are fully known, which at present is not 
the case. But even amidst all our ignorance of these, it is 
surprising how small a portion of evil they would occasion 
if men obeyed the laws which are actually ascertained. How 
many ships perish from being sent to sea in an old worn- 
out condition, and ill-equipped, through mere Acquisitive- 
ness ; and how many more, from captains and crews being 
chosen, who are greatly deficient in knowledge, intelligence 
and morality, in consequence of which they infringe the 
physical laws ! The London Courier^ of 29th April, 1834, 
contains a list of ten British brigs of war, mostly employed 
as packet ships, which had foundered at sea within the pre- 
ceding twelve years, owing to bad construction and bad 
condition ; while, it is remarked, not one American private 
packet ship, out of the vast number constantly sailing be- 
tween Liverpool and New York, is recollected to have per- 
ished in that manner. Such facts show how little Nature is 
to blame for the calamities of shipwreck, and to how great 
an extent they arise from human negligence and folly. We 
ought to look to all these matters before we complain of 
storms as natural institutions. 

The last example of the mixed operation of the natural 
laws which I shall notice, is the result of the mercantile 
distress in 1825-6. I have traced the origin of that visita- 
tion to excessive activity of Acquisitiveness, and a general 
ascendency of the animal and selfish faculties over the mo- 
ral and intellectual powers. The punishments of these 
offences were manifold. The excesses infringed the moral 
law, and the chastisement for this, was deprivation of the 
tranquil steady enjoyment that flows only from the moral 
sentiments, with severe suffering in the ruin of fortune and 
blasting of hope. These disappointments produce mental 



2S3 ON THE OPERATION OP THE NATURAL LAWS. 






anguish and depression, which occasioned an unhealthy 
state of the brain. The action of the brain being disturbed, 
a morbid nervous influence was transmitted to the whole 
corporeal system ; bodily disease was superadded to mental 
sorrow ; and, in some instances, the unhappy sufferers com- 
mitted suicide to escape from these aggravated evils. Un- 
der the organic law, the children produced in this period of 
mental depression, bodily distress, and organic derange- 
ment, would inherit weak bodies, with feeble and irritable 
minds — a hereditary chastisement for their father's trans- 
gressions. 

In the instances now given, we discover the various laws 
acting in perfect harmony, and 1 in subordination to the moral 
and intellectual laws. If our ancestors had not forsaken 
the supremacy of the moral sentiments, such fabrics as the 
houses in the old town of Edinburgh never would have been 
built ; and if the modern proprietors had returned to that 
law, and kept profligate and drunken inhabitants out of 
them, the conflagration might still have been avoided. In 
the case of the ships, we see that wherever intellect and 
morality had been relaxed, and animal motives permitted to 
assume the supremacy, evil had speedily followed ; and that 
where the higher powers were called forth, safety had been 
obtained. And, finally, in the case of the merchants and 
manufacturers, we trace their calamities directly to placing 
Acquisitiveness and Self- Esteem above intellect and mora! 
sentiment. 

Formidable and appalling, then, as these punishments 
are, — yet, when we attend to the laws under which they 
occur, and perceive that the object and legitimate operation 
of every one of those laws, when observed, is to produce 
happiness to man, and that the punishments have in view 
the sole object of forcing him back to this happiness — we 
cannot, under the supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
intellect, fail to bow in humility before them, as at once wise, 
benevolent, and just. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS ON THE HAPPINESS OF 
INDIVIDUALS. 

A formidable objection has often been stated against my 
views of the Natural Laws — namely,' that although, when 
considered abstractly, they appear beneficent and just, yet, 
when applied to individuals, they are undeniably the causes 
of extensive, severe, and unavoidable suffering ; so that 
while, theoretically, the moral horizon appears to be cleared 
up, nevertheless, practically and substantially, the obscurity 
and intricacy remain undiminished. In answer, I have to 
observe, that, as the whole is but an aggregate of all the 
parts,— ^-if any natural institution, when viewed in its ope- 
ration in regard to the race, is found to be just and benefi- 
cent, it cannot well be cruel and Unjust to individuals, who 
are the component parts of that whole ; and this, accord- 
ingly, I humbly conceive to admit of something approaching 
to demonstration. The form of a dialogue is perhaps the 
best adapted for illustrating the subject ; and if, in imitation 
of some of the classic fabulists, we suppose the suffering 
individuals to make an appeal to Jupiter, the law of gravita- 
tion may be exemplified as follows. 

It happened in a remote period, that a slater slipped from 
the roof of a high building, in consequence of a stone of 
the ridge having given way as he walked upright along it ; 
he fell to the ground, had a leg broken, and was otherwise 
severely bruised. As he lay in bed, suffering severe pain 
from his misfortune, he addressed Jupiter in these words : 
" O Jupiter, thou art a cruel god ; for thou hast made me 
so frail and imperfect a being, that I had not faculties to 
perceive my danger, nor power to arrest my fall when its 
occurrence showed how horrible an evil awaited me. It 
were better for me that I had never been." Jupiter, gra- 
ciously bending his ear, heard the address, and answered : 
" Of what law of mine dost thou complain 1" " Of the 
law of gravitation," replied the slater ; " by its operation, 
the slip which my foot made upon the stone, which, un- 



290 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

known to me, was loose, precipitated me to the earth, and 
crushed my body, never calculated to resist such violence." 
" I restore thee to thy station on the roof," said Jupiter ; 
" I heal all thy bruises ; and to convince thee of my bene- 
volence, I suspend the law of gravitation as to thy body and 
all that is related to it : art thou now content 1" 

The slater, in deep emotion, offered up gratitude and 
thanks, and expressed the profoundest reveience for so just 
and beneficent a deity. In the very act of doing so, he 
found himself in perfect health, erect upon the ridge of the 
roof; and, rejoicing, gazed around. His wonder at so 
strange an event having at last abated, he endeavoured to 
walk along the ridge to arrive at the spot which he intended 
to repair. But the law of gravitation was suspended, and 
his body did not press upon the roof. There being no pres- 
sure, there was no resistance, and his legs moved backwards 
and forwards in the air without any progress being made by 
his body. Alarmed at this occurrence, he stooped, seized 
his trowel, lifted it full of mortar, and made the motion of 
throwing it on the slates ; but the mortar, freed from the 
trowel, hung in mid air — the law of gravitation was sus- 
pended as to it also. Nearly frantic with terror at such un- 
expected novelties, he endeavoured to descend in order to 
seek relief; but the law of gravitation was suspended as to 
his body, and it hung poised at the level of the ridge, like a 
balloon in the air. He tried to fling himself down, to get 
rid of the uneasy sensation, but his body floated erect, and 
would not move downwards. 

In an agony of consternation, he called once more upon 
Jupiter. The god, ever kind and compassionate, heard his 
cry and pitied his distress ; and asked, " What evil hath be- 
fallen thee now, that thou art not yet content 1 have I not 
suspended, at thy request, the law which made thee fall ? 
Now thou art safe from bruises and from broken limbs ; 
why then dost thou still complain 1" 

The slater answered : " In deep humiliation, I acknow- 
ledge my ignorance and presumption ; restore me to my 
couch of pain, but give me back the benefits of thy law of 
gravitation." 

" Thy wish is granted," said Jupiter in reply. The 
slater in a moment lay on his bed of sickness, endured the 
castigation of the organic law, was restored to health, and 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 291 

■gam mounted to the roof that caused his recent pain. 
He thanked Jupiter anew, from the depths of his soul, for 
the law of gravitation with its numberless benefits ; and 
applied his faculties to study and obey it daring the re- 
mainder of his life. This study opened up to him new and 
delightful perceptions of the Creator's beneficence and 
wisdom, of which he had never even dreamed before ; and 
these views so excited and gratified his moral and intel- 
lectual powers, that he seemed to himself to have entered 
on a new existence. Ever afterward he observed the law 
of gravitation ; and, in a good old age, when his organic 
frame was fairly worn out by natural decay, he transmitted 
his trade, his house, and much experience and wisdom, 
to his 6on, and died thanking and blessing Jupiter for 
having opened his eyes to the true theory of his scheme of 
creation. 

The attention of Jupiter was next attracted by the loud 
groans and severe complaints of a husbandman, who ad- 
dressed him thus : " O Jupiter, I lie here racked with pain, 
and pass the hours in agony without relief. Why hast 
thou created me so miserable a being ?" Jupiter answered : 
" What aileth thee, and of what institution of mine dost 
thou complain T" " The earth which thou hast made," re- 
plied the husbandman, " will yield me no food, unless I till 
and sow it ; and no increase, except it be watered by thy 
rain. While I guided my plough in obedience to thy law, 
thy rain came, and it fell not only on the earth, but also on 
me ; it penetrated' through the clothes which I had been 
obliged to make for myself, because thou hadst left me na- 
ked ; it cooled my skin, which thou hadst rendered delicate 
and sensible ; it disordered all the functions of my body ; 
and now rheumatic fever parches my blood, and agonises 
every muscle. O Jupiter, thou art not a kind father to thy 
children." 

Jupiter heard the complaint, and graciously replied : 
" My physical and organic laws were established for thy 
advantage and enjoyment, and thou hast grievously in- 
fringed them ; the pain thou sufTerest is intended to re- 
claim thee to thy duty, and I have constituted thy duty 
the highest joy of thy existence : but say, what dost thou 
J*Mire ?" 

The husbandman answered : " What, O Jupiter, signify 



292 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

the purposes of thy laws to me, when thou hast denied me 
faculties competent to discover and obey them] — Frail and 
fallible as I am, they cause me only pain ; deliver me from 
their effects, and 1 ask no other boon." 

" Thy prayer is granted," said Jupiter : " I restore thee 
to perfect health : and, for thy gratification, I suspend the 
laws that have offended thee. Henceforth water shall not 
wet thee or thine, thy skin shall feel cold no more, and thy 
muscles shall never ache. Art thou now content 1" 

" Most gracious Jupiter," said the husbandman, " my 
soul is melted with deepest gratitude, and 1 now adore thee 
as supremely good." 

While he spoke, he found himself a-field behind his team, 
healthful and vigorous, jocund and gay, and again blessed 
Jupiter for his merciful dispensation. The season was 
spring, when yet the chill blast of the north, the bright 
blaze of a powerful sun, and passing showers of rain, inter- 
changed in quick and varying succession. As he drove his 
plough along, the rain descended, but it wet not him ; the 
sharp winds blew, but they chilled no fibre in his frame ; 
the flood of heat next poured upon his brow, but no sweat 
started from its pores : the physical and organic laws were 
suspended as to him: 

Rejoicing in his freedom from annoyance and pain, he 
returned gladly home to meet his smiling family, after the 
labours of the day. It had been his custom in the evening 
to put off the garments in which he had toiled, to clothe 
himself in fresh linen, to sup on milk prepared by his 
wife with savoury fruits and spices, and to press his chil- 
dren to his bosom with all the fervour of a parent's love ; 
and he used to feel a thrill of pleasure pervading every 
nerve, as they acknowledged and returned the affectionate 
embrace 

He looked to find the linen clean, cool, delicately dressed, 
and lying in its accustomed place ; but it was not there. 
He called to his wife to fetch it, half chiding her for neglect. 
With wonder and dismay depicted in every feature, she 
narrated a strange adventure. With the morning sun she 
had risen to accomplish her wonted duty, but, although the 
water wetted every thread that clothed other individuals, it 
moistened not a fibre of his. She boiled it over a powerful 
fire, and applied every means that intellect, stimulated by at- 



OS THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 293 

lection, could devise ; but the result was still the same : the 
water .glided over his clothes and would not wet them. " The 
physical law," said the husband within himself " is sus- 
pended as tome ; henceforth water wetteth not me or mine." 
He said no more, but placed himself at table, smiling over 
his lovely family. He lifted the youngest child upon his 
knee, a girl just opening in her bloom pressed her to his 
bosom, and kissed her ruddy cheek. But he started when 
he experienced no sensation. He saw her with his eyes, 
and heard her speak, but had no feeling of her presence. 
His knee was as stone, his bosom as marble, and his lips as 
steel ; no sensation penetrated through his skin. He placed 
her on the floor, looked wistfully on her form, graceful, viva- 
cious, and instinct with love ; and, as if determined to enjoy 
the well-remembered pleasure now withheld, he clasped her 
to his bosom with an embrace so ardent, that she screamed 
with pain. Sill he was all adamant, no sensation reached 
his mind. Heaving a deep sigh, he sent her away, and again 
the thought entered the very depths of his soul — " The or- 
ganic law is suspended as to me !" Recollecting well the 
sweet gratifications of his evening meal* he seized a bowl, 
and delicately began to sip, exciting every papilla of the 
tongue, to catch the grateful savour. But no savour was 
perceptible ; the liquid glided over his gustatory organs like 
quicksilver over the smooth surface of a mirror, without 
impression, and without leaving a trace behind. He now 
started in horror, and his spirit sank within him when he 
thought that thenceforth he should live without sensation. 
He rushed into the fields, and called aloud on Jupiter, " O 
Jupiter, I am the most miserable of men ; I am a being 
without sensation. Why hast thou made me thus f 

Jupiter heard his cry, and answered : " I have suspended 
the physical and organic laws, to which thou ascribedst thy 
fever and thy pain ; henceforth no pang shall cause thy 
nerves to shrink, or thy muscles to quiver ; why, then, art 
thou thus unhappy, and why discontented with thy new 
condition 1" 

" True, O Jupiter," replied the husbandman ; " but thou 
hast taken away from me sensation : I no longer feel the 
grateful breath of morn fanning my cheek as I drive my 
tedm a- field ; the rose diffuses its fragrance for me in vain ; 
the ru«My grape, the luscious fig, and the cooling orange, 
25* 



294 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

to me are now savourless as adamant or air ; my children 
are as stones : O Jupiter, I am utterly wretched ; I am a 
man without sensation !" 

" Unhappy mortal," replied the god, " how can I afford 
thee satisfaction 1 When I gave thee nerves to feel, and 
muscles to execute the purposes of thy mind, — when I be- 
stowed on thee water to refresh thy palate, and made thy 
whole frame one great inlet of enjoyment, — thou wert not 
content. I made thy nerves liable to pain, to warn thee 
of thy departures from my laws. The rain that was sent 
fell to fructify and refresh the earth, and not to injure thee. 
I saw thee, while the showers descended, stay abroad re- 
gardless of its influence on thy frame. The northern blast 
received from me its piercing cold, to warn thee of its ef- 
fects ; and yet I saw thee, wet and shivering, stand in its 
course regardless of its power. In the voice of the storm 
I spake to thy understanding, but thou didst not compre- 
hend. The fever that parched thy blood was sent to arrest 
thee in thy departures from my organic laws. If I restore 
to thee my institutions, thou mayst again forget my ways, 
and in misery impeach my justice." 

" O most gracious Jupiter," cried the husbandman, " now 
I see thy power and wisdom, and my own folly and pre- 
sumption I accept thy laws, and gratefully acknowledge 
that, even in the chastisements they inflict, they are benefi- 
cent. Restore to me the enjoyments of sensation ; permit 
me once more to reap the advantages that flow from the just 
uses of my nerves and muscles, and I bow with resignation 
to the punishment of misapplying them." Jupiter granted 
his request. His fever and pains returned, but by medicine 
were relieved. He slowly recovered health and strength, 
and never afterward embraced his children, or enjoyed a 
meal, without pouring forth a deeper offering of gratitude 
than he had done before. He was now instructed concern- 
ing the source of his enjoyments ; he studied the laws of his 
nature and obeyed them ; and when he suffered for occa- 
sional deviations, he hastened back to the right path, and 
never again underwent so severe a punishment. 

Just as the husbandman resumsd his wonted labours, a 
new voice was heard calling loudly to Jupiter for relief. It 
proceeded from a young heir writhing in agony, who cried, 
" O Jupiter, my father committed debaucheries, for which 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 295 

my bones are pierced with suffering ; gout teareth ray flesh 
asunder ; thou actest not justly in punishing me for his 
transgressions : deliver me, O Jupiter, or renounce thy cha- 
racter for benevolence and justice." " Thou complainest 
of my law of hereditary descent !" said Jupiter ; " hast thou 
derived from thy father any other quality besides liability to 
goutl" " O Jupiter," replied the sufferer, " I have derived 
nerves that feel sweet pleasure when the gout ceaseth its 
gnawing, muscles that execute the purposes of my will, 
senses that are inlets of joy, and faculties that survey and 
rejoice in thy fair creation : But why didst thou permit gout 
to descend from him who sinned, to mel" 

" Short-sighted mortal," said Jupiter, " thy father was 
afflicted because he infringed my institutions ; by my or- 
ganic law, thou hast received a frame constituted as was that 
of thy father when thy life commenced ; the delicate sensi- 
oility of his nerves transmitted the same susceptibility to 
thine ; the vigour of his muscles has been transferred into 
thine ; and by the same law, the liability to pain that existed 
in his bones from debauchery, constitutes an inseparable 
element of thine : If this law afflict thee, speak the word, 
and I shall suspend it as to thee." 

" Bountiful Jupiter !" exclaimed the sufferer ; " but tell 
me first — if thou suspendest thy law, shall I lose all that I 
inherited by it from my father ; vigour of nerves, muscles, 
senses, and faculties, and all that constitutes my delight 
when the gout afrlicteth me not?" — " Assuredly thou shalt," 
said Jupiter ; " but thy body shall be free from pain." 

" Forbear, most bounteous deity," replied the sufferer ; 
" I gratfully accept the gift of thy organic laws, with all 
their chastisements annexed : But say, O Jupiter, — if this 
pain was inflicted on my father for transgressing thy law, 
may it not be lessened or removed if I obey ?*' 

" The very object of my law," said Jupiter, " is that it 
should. Hadst thou proceeded as thy father did, thy whole 
frame would have become one great centre of disease. The 
pain was transmitted to thee to guard thee by a powerful 
monitor trom pursuing his sinful ways, that thou mightst 
escape this great misery. Adopt a course in accordance 
with my institutions, and then thy pain shall abate, and thy 
children shall be free from its effects." 

The heir expressed profound resignation to the will 01 



296 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

Jupiter, blessed him for his organic law, and entered upon 
a life of new and strict obedience. His pain in time dimin- 
ished, and his enjoyments increased. Ever after he was 
grateful for the law. 

A feeble voice next reached the vault of heaven : it was 
that of a child, sick and in pain. " What is thy distress, 
poor boy," said Jupiter, " and of what dost thou complain V 9 
Half drowned in sobs, the feeble voice replied : u I suffer 
under thy organic law. A father's sickness, and the disor- 
ders of a mother's frame, have been transmitted in com- 
bined intensity to me. I am all over exhaustion and pain." 
5< Hast thou received no other gift," inquired Jupiter, " but 
sickness and disease — no pleasure to thy nerves, thy mus- 
cles, or thy mental powers 1" — "All are so feeble," replied 
the child, " that I exist, not to enjoy, but only to suffer." 
" Poor victim," said Jupiter, " my organic law shall soon 
deliver thee, and I will take thee to myself." The organic 
.aw instantly operated ; the body of the child lay a lifeless 
mass, and suffered no more ; its spirit dwelt with Jupiter. 

" The next prayer was addressed by a merchant struggling 
on the Mediterranean waves, and near sinking in their foam. 
" What evil dost thou charge against me," said Jupiter, 
u and what dost thou require V J 

" O Jupiter," answered the supplicant, " I sailed from 
Tyre to Rome in a ship, which thou seest on fire, loaded with 
all the merchandise acquired by my previous toils. As I lay 
here at anchor off the port of Syracuse, whither business 
called me, a sailor, made by thee, thirsted after wine, stole 
it from my store, and, in intoxication, set my ship and goods 
on fire ; and I am now plunged in the waves to die by 
drowning, to escape the severer pain of being consumed by 
lire. Why, if thou are just, should the innocent thus suffer 
for the guilty V 

" Thou complainest, then," said Jupiter, " of my social 
'aw 1 Since this law displeaseth thee, I restore thee to thy 
ship, and suspend it as to thee." 

The merchant, in a moment, saw his ship entire ; the 
blazing embers restored to vigorous planks ; himself and all 
his crew sound in limb, and gay in mind, upon her deck. 
Joyous and grateful, he addressed thanksgiving to the god, 
and called to his crew to weigh the anchor, set the sails, 
Mid turn the helm for Rome. But no sailor heard him 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 297 

speak, and no movement followed his words. Astonished 
at their indolence and sloth, he cried in. a yet louder voice, 
and inquired why none obeyed his call. But still no an- 
swer was given. He saw the crew move and speak, act and 
converse ; but they seemed not to observe kirn. We entreat- 
ed, remonstrated, and upbraided ; but, notwithstanding all 
his efforts, could obtain no reply. All seemed unconscious 
of his presence. Unconscious of his presence ! The aw- 
ful thought rushed into his mind, that the social law was 
suspended as to him. * He now saw, in all its horror, the 
import of the words of Jupiter, which before, he had not 
fully comprehended. Terrified, he seized a rope, and set a 
sail. Every physical law was in force, and obeyed his will. 
The sail filled, and strained forward from the mast. He 
ran to the helm — it obeyed his muscles, and the ship moved 
as he directed it. But its course was short : the anchor was 
down, and stopped its progress in the sea. He lowered the 
sail, seized a handspoke, and attempted to weigh ; but in 
vain. The strength of ten men was required to raise so 
ponderous an anchor. Again he called to his crew ; but 
again he found that the social law was suspended as to him : 
he was absolved thenceforth from all suffering caused by 
the misconduct of others, but he was cut off from every en- 
joyment and advantage derivable from their assistance. 

In despair he seized the boat, rowed it into the port of 
Syracuse, and proceeded straight to his commercial corres- 
pondent there, to beg his aid in delivering him from the in- 
dolence of his crew. He saw his friend, addressed him, and 
told him of his fruitless endeavours to leave the anchorage ; 
but his friend seemed quite unconscious of his presence 
He did not even look upon him, but proceeded in business 
of his own, with which he seemed entirely occupied. The 
merchant, wearied with fatigue, and almost frantic with 
alarm, hurried to a tavern on the quay, where he used to 
dine ; and, entering, called for wine to recruit his exhausted 
strength. But the servants seemed unconscious of his pre- 
sence ; no movement was made ; and he remained as if in 
a vast solitude, amidst large companies of merchants, ser- 
vants, and assistants, who all bustled in active gaiety, each 
fulfilling his duty in his own department. The merchan* 
now comprehended all the horrors of his situation and call- 
ed aloud to Jupiter — " O Jupiter, death in the waves, or by 



298 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

consuming flame, were better than the life thou hast assign- 
ed to me. Let mg die, for my cup of misery is full beyond 
endurance ; or restore me the enjoyments of thy social 
law, and I shall cease to complain of the pains which it 
inflicts." 

" But," said Jupiter, " if I restore thee to my social law, 
thy ship will be consumed, thou and thy crew will escape 
in a boat, but thou shalt be a very beggar ; and, in thy po- 
verty, thou wilt upbraid me for dealing unjustly by thee." 

" O bountiful Jupiter," replied the merchant, " I never 
knew till now what enjoyments I owed to thy social law ; 
how rich it renders me, even when all else is gone ; and how 
poor I should be, with all the world for a possession, if de- 
nied its blessings. True, I shall be poor ; but my nerves, 
muscles, senses, propensities, sentiments, and intellect will 
be left me ; now I see that employment of these is the only 
pleasure of existence ; poverty will not cut me off from 
exercising these powers in obedience to thy laws, but will 
rather add new motives exciting me to do so. Under thy 
social law^ will not the sweet voice of friendship cheer me 
in poverty 1 will not the aid of kindred and of my fellow 
men soothe the remainder of my days ] and, besides, now 
that I see thy designs, I shall avoid employing my fel- 
low men in situations unsuitable to their talents, and 
thereby escape the penalties of infringing thy social law. 
Most merciful Jupiter, restore to me the benefit of all thy 
laws, and I accept the penalties attached to their infringe- 
ment." His request was granted ; afterward he made 
Jupiter's laws and the nature of man his study ; he obeyed 
those laws, became moderately rich, and found himself hap- 
pier than he had ever been in his days of selfishness and 
ignorance. 

Jupiter was assailed by many other prayers from unfor- 
tunate sufferers under the effects of infringement of his 
laws ; but, instead of hearing each in endless succession, 
he assembled his petitioners, and introduced to them the 
slater, the husbandman, the young heir, and the merchant, 
whom he requested to narrate their knowledge and expe- 
rience of the natural laws ; and he intimated, that if, after 
listening to their account, any petitioner should still be dis- 
satisfied with his condition, he would suspend for him the 
particular law which caused the discontent. But no appli • 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 29$ 

cation followed. Jupiter saw his creatures employ them- 
selves with real earnestness in studying and conforming to 
his institutions, and ever afterward they offered up to him 
only gratitude and adoration for his infinite goodness and 
wisdom. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 

Since the first edition of this work was published, objec- 
tions have been stated, that the views maintained in it are 
at variance with Revelation, and hostile to the interests of 
religion. It is gratifying, however, to know, that these ob- 
jections have not been urged by any individual of the least 
eminence in theology, or countenanced by persons of en- 
larged views of Christian doctrine. On the contrary, many 
excellent individuals, of unquestionable piety and benevo- 
lence, have widely recommended this work as containing 
the philosophy of practical Christianity, and have aided in 
its distribution. It is therefore rather on account of the in- 
terest of the inquiry itself, than from any feeling of the ne- 
cessity of a defence, that I enter into the following discus- 
sion of the relation between Scripture and Science ; and as 
in a question of this nature, authorities are entitled to great 
weight, I shall commence by citing the opinion of one of the 
most learned, talented, and accomplished divines of the pre- 
sent day, the Archbishop of Dublin. 

A few years ago, a Professorship of Political Economy 
was founded in Oxford by Mr. Drummond, with a novel 
constitution. The professor holds his office for only five 
years, and it is a condition that one lecture, at least, shall be 
published every year. Dr. Whately, now Archbishop of 
Dublin, was the second individual elected to the chair, and, 
in compliance with the statute, he published, in 1831, eight 
lectures on the science. They are introductory in their 
character, being intended chiefly to dispel popular prejudioes 



300 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

against political economy, and to unfold its objects. They 
contain several admirable observations, calculated to remove 
prejudices against new truths, and directly applicable to the 
subject of the present work. On this account I present 
them to the reader. 

u It has been my first object," says Dr. Whately, in his 
preface, " to combat the prevailing prejudices against the 
study, and especially those which represent it as unfavoura- 
ble to religion." 

" In proportion," he continues, M as any branch of study 
leads to important and useful results, — in proportion as it 
gains ground in public estimation, — in proportion as it 
tends to overthrow prevailing errors, — in the same degree it 
may be expected to call forth angry declamation from those 
who are trying to despise what they will not learn, and wed- 
ded to prejudices which they cannot defend. Galileo proba- 
bly would have escaped persecution, if his discoveries could 
have been disproved, and his reasonings refuted." " That 
political economy should have been complained of as hos- 
tile to religion, will probably be regarded a century hence 
(should the fact be then on record) with the same wonder, 
almost approaching to incredulity, with which we, of the 
present day, hear of men sincerely opposing, on religious 
grounds, the Copernican system. But till the advocates ol 
Christianity shall have become universally much better 
acquainted with the true character of their religion, than, 
universally, they have ever yet been, we must always expect 
that every branch of study, every scientific theory that is 
brought into notice, will be assailed on religious groands, 
by those who either have not studied the subject, or who are 
incompetent judges of it ; or again, who are addresing them- 
selves to such persons as are so circumstanced, and wish to 
excite and to take advantage of the passions of the ignorant. 
Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. Some there 
are who sincerely believe that the Scriptures contain revela- 
tions of truths the most distinct from religion. Such per- 
sons procured, accordingly, a formal condemnation (very 
lately rescinded) of the theory of the earth's motion, as at 
variance with Scripture. In Protestant countries, and now, 
it seems, even in Popish, this point has been conceded ; but 
that the erroneous principle — that of appealing to revelation 
on questions of physical science — has not yet been entirely 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 301 

cleared away, is evident from the objections which most of 
you probably may have heard to the researches of geology. 
The objections against astronomy have been abandoned, 
rather, perhaps, from its having been made to appear, that 
the Scripture accounts of the phenomena of the heavens 
may be reconciled with the conclusions of science, than from 
its being understood that Scripture is not the test by which 
the conclusions of science are to be tried." It is not a sign 
of faith — on the contrary, it indicates rather a want of faith, 
or else a culpable indolence — to decline meeting any theorist 
on his own ground, and to cut short the controversy by an 
appeal to the authority of Scripture. For, if we really are 
convinced of the truth of Scripture, and consequently of the 
falsity of any theory (of the earth, for instance) which is 
really at variance with it, we must needs believe that that 
theory is also at variance with observable phenomena ; and 
we ought not therefore to shrink from trying the question 
by an appeal to these.'" " God has not revealed to us a sys- 
tem of morality, such as would have been needed for a being 
who had no other means of distinguishing right and wrong. 
On the contrary, the inculcation of virtue and reprobation of 
vice in Scripture, are in such a tone as seems to presuppose 
a natural power, or a capacity for acquiring tne power, to 
distinguish them. And if a man, denying or renouncing all 
claims of natural conscience, should practice without scruple 
every thing he did not find expressly forbidden in Scripture, 
and think himself not bound to do any thing that is not there 
expressly enjoined, exclaiming at every turn — 

" Is it so nominated in the Bond V 

he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian's 
should be. Since, then, we are bound to use our own natu- 
ral faculties in the search after all truth that is within the 
reach of those faculties, most especially ought we to try, by 
their own proper evidence, questions which form no part of 
revelation properly so called, but which are incidentally allu- 
ded to in the Sacred Writings. If we appeal to th^ Scrip- 
tures on any such points, it should be merely as to an ancient 
book, not in reference to their sacred character ; in short, not 
as Scripture."— Pp. 29-36. 

These observations are highlv philosophical and worthy of 
26 



502 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

attention : the more so that their author is a divine, and now 
a high dignitary in the church of Ireland. 

The science of geology, also, has been fiercely attacked as 
hostile to religion, and been ably defended by the Rev. Adam 
Sedgwick, one of its most eminent professors. In the Ap- 
pendix to his Discourse on the Studies of the University of 
Cambridge, he has published some valuable and instructive 
notes, in the last of which he reproves, with great eloquence 
and severity, the bigoted and ignorant individuals who " dare 
to affirm that the pursuits of natural science are hostile to 
religion." He also chastises those writers who have endea 
voured to falsify the facts and conclusions of geology, for the 
purpose of flattering the religious prejudices of the public. 
" There is another class of men," says he, " who pursue 
geology by a nearer road, and are guided by a different light. 
Well-intentioned they may be ; but they have betrayed no 
small self-sufficiency, along with a shameful want of know 
ledge of the fundamental facts they presume to write about : 
hence they have dishonoured the literature of this country 
by Mosaic Geology , Scripture Geology, and other works of 
cosmogony with kindred titles, wherein they have overlooked 
the aim and end of revelation, tortured the book of life out of 
its proper meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a 
collision between natural phenomena and the word of God." 
—P. 150. 

The following observations of the same author are ex- 
ceedingly just : — " A Brahmin crushed with a stone the 
microscope that first showed him living things among the 
vegetables of his daily food. The spirit of the Brahmin lives 
in Christendom. The bad principles of our nature are not 
bounded by caste or climate ; and men are still to be found, 
who, if not restrained by the wise and humane laws of their 
country, would try to stifle by personal violence, and crush 
by brute force, every truth not hatched among their own 
conceits, and confined within the narrow fences of their own 
ignorance. 

" We are told by the wise man not to answer a fool accord- 
ing to his folly ; and it would indeed be a vain and idle task 
to engage in controversy with this school of false philosophy 
— to waste our breath in the forms of exact reasoning unfit- 
ted to the comprehension of our antagonists — to draw ou* 
weapons in a combat where victory could give no honour- 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 303 

Before a geologist can condescend to reason with such men, 
they must first learn geology.* It is too much to call upon 
us to scatter our seed on a soil at once both barren and unre- 
claimed — it is folly to think that we can in the same hour be 
stubbing up the thorns and reaping the harvest. All the 
writers of this school have not indeed sinned against plain 
sense to the same degree. With some of them, there is 
perhaps a perception of the light of natural truth, which may 
lead them after a time to follow it in the right road : but the 
case of others is beyond all hope from the powers of rational 
argument. Their position is impregnable while they remain 
within the fenres of their ignorance, which is to them as a 
wall of brass : for (as was well said, if I remember right, by 
BishopWarburton, of some bustling fanatics of his own day) 
there is no weak side of common sense whereat we may 
attack them. If cases like these yield at all, it must be to 
some treatment which suits the inveteracy of their nature, 
and not to the weapons of reason. Aspsychological pheno- 
mena, they are, however, well deserving of our study ; — 
teaching us, among other things, how prone man is to turn 
his best faculties to evil purposes — and how, at the sugges- 
tions of vanity and other bad principles of his heart, he can 
become so far deluded, as to fancy that he is doing honour to 
religion, while he is sacrificing the common charities of life, 
and arraigning the very workmanship of God. "-Pp. 151, 152. 

After the examples which these passages afford, of mis- 
directed zeal for religion leading to opposition against the 
most useful and interesting investigations, we need not be 
surprised that the doctrine of the natural laws has met 
with a similar reception. The charge is made that it leads 
to infidelity, and that its principles are irreconcilable with 
Scripture. 

It may be useful to observe, that in all ages new doctrines 
have been branded as impious, and that Christianity itself 
has offered no exception to this rule. The Greeks and 
Romans charged Christianity with " impiety and novelty." 
In Cave's Primitive Christianity, we are informed that " the 
Christians were every where accounted a pack of Atheists, 

*This remark is peculiarly applicable to those who oppose 
Phrenology and the doctrine of Natural Laws. Such of them as 
are serious, do so in profound ignorance of the whole subject. 



304 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

and their religion the Atheism?'' They were denominated 
" mountebank impostors," and " men of a desperate and 
unlawful faction." They were represented as " destructive 
and pernicious to human society," and were accused of 
" sacrilege, sedition, and high treason " The same system 
of misrepresentation and abuse was practised by the Roman 
Catholics against the Protestants, at the Reformation ; — 
" Some called their dogs Calvin ; and others transformed 
Calvin into Cain." In France, " the old and stale calum- 
nies, formerly invented against the first Christians, were 
again revived by Demochares, a doctor of tKe Sorbonne, 
pretending that all the disasters of the state were to be attri 
buted to the Protestants alone." 

If the views of human nature expounded in this work be 
untrue, the proper answer to them is a demonstration of 
their falsity. If they be true, they are mere enunciations of 
the institutions of the Creator ; and it argues superstitious, 
and not religious feelings, to fear evil consequences from the 
knowledge of what Divine Wisdom has appointed. The 
argument that the results of the doctrine are obviously at 
variance with Scripture, and that therefore the doctrines 
cannot be true, is not admissible ; " for," in the words of 
Dr. Whately, " if we really are convinced of the truth of 
Scripture, and consequently of the falsity of any theory (of 
the earth, for instance) which is really at variance with it, we 
must needs believe that that theory is also at variance with 
observable phenomena ; and we ought not therefore to shrink 
from trying the question by an appeal to these." 

Galileo was told, from high authority in the church, that 
his doctrine of the revolution of the globe was obviously at 
variance with Scripture, and that therefore it could not be 
true ; but, as his opinions were founded on palpable facts, 
which could be neither concealed nor denied, they necessarily 
prevailed. If there had been a real opposition between 
Scripture and nature, the only result would have been a 
demonstration that Scripture in this particular instance was 
erroneously interpreted ; because the evidence of physical 
nature is imperishable and insuperable, and cannot give way 
to any authority whatever. The same consequence will 
evidently happen in regard to Phrenology. If any fact in 
physiology does actually and directly contradict any inter- 
pretation of Scripture, it is not difficult to perceive which 



SCIENCE ASD SCRIPTURE. 305 

must yield. The human understanding cannot resist evi- 
dence founded on observation ; and even if it did resist, 
Nature would not bend, but continue to operate in her own 
way in spite of the resistance, and a new and more correct 
interpretation of Scripture would ultimately become inevi- 
table. Opposition between science and revelation I sincerely 
believe to be impossible, when the facts in nature are cor- 
rectly observed, and divine truth is correctly interpreted ; but 
I put the case thus strongly to call the serious attention of 
religious persons to the mischievous consequences to reli- 
gion, of rashly denouncing, as adverse to revelation, any 
doctrine professing to be founded on natural facts. Every 
instance in which the charge is made falsely, is a gross 
outrage against revelation itself, and tends to lead men to 
regard Scripture as an obstacle to the progress of science 
and civilization, instead of being a system of divine wisdom, 
in harmony with all natural truth. 

All existing interpretations of Scripture have been adopted 
in ignorance of the facts, that every person in whose brain 
the animal organs preponderate greatly over the moral and 
intellectual organs, has a native and instinctive tendency to 
immoral conduct, and vice versa ; and that the influence of 
organization is fundamental — that is to say, that no means 
are yet known by which an ill-formed brain may be made to 
manifest the moral and intellectual faculties with the same 
success as a brain of an excellent configuration. An indi- 
vidual possessing a brain like that of Melancthon, repre- 
sented on p. 139, is naturally adapted to receive, comprehend, 
and practice the precepts of Christianity ; whereas it will be 
found extremely difficult to render persons with brains like 
those of Hare, p. 137, Pope Alexander VI., p. 140, Vitellius, 
p. 142, or the Carib, p. 166, practical Christians. Only 
prenologists, who have observed, for many years, in varioua 
situations, and under different influences, the conduct of 
individuals constituted in these different ways, can conceive 
the importance of the relative development of the cerebral 
organs ; but after it is discovered, the inferences from it are 
irresistible. The religious teachers of mankind are yet 
ignorant of the most momentous fact which nature presents 
in regard to the moral and intellectual improvement of the 
race. I have heard it said that Christianity affords a better 
and a more instantaneous remedy for human depravity, than 
26* 



306 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

improvement of the cerebral organization ; because the mo 
ment a man is penetrated by the love of God in Christ, hia 
moral and religious affections become far stronger and more 
elevated whatever his brain may be, — than those of any 
individual whatever without that love, however noble his 
cerebral development, and however much he may be instruc- 
ted in natural knowledge. I observe, however, that in this 
life a man cannot become penetrated by the love of God, ex- 
cept through the aid of sound and efficient material organs. 
This fact is directly proved by cases of madness and idiocy. 
Disease in the organs is the cause of insanity, and mere defi- 
ciency of their size is one and an invariable cause of idiocy. 
See figure of idiot head on p. 173. In neither of these states 
can the mind receive the advantages of the Christian doc- 
trine. It is therefore obvious that the power of receiving 
and appreciating Christianity itself is modified by the condi- 
tion of the brain ; and I venture to affirm, that the influence 
of the organs does not terminate with these extreme cases, 
but operates in all circumstances and in every individual, 
aiding or impeding the reception and efficacy even of revela- 
tion. If this were not the case, there would be in operation 
a power capable of influencing the human mind during life, 
without the intervention of material organs ; and, accord- 
ingly, many excellent persons believe this to be scriptural 
truth, and matter of experience also. But those who enter- 
tain this opinion are not instructed in the functions of the 
brain ; they are not aware of the universally admitted facts, 
which establish, that while life continues the mind cannot act 
or be acted upon except through the medium of organs ; nor 
do they bring forward one example of idiots and madmen 
being rendered pious, practical, and enlightened Christians 
by this power, notwithstanding the state of their brains. 
Cases indeed occur in which religious feelings co-exist with 
partial idiocy or partial insanity ; but in them the organs of 
these sentiments will be discovered to be well developed, — 
and if the feelings be sane, the organs will be found unaf- 
fected by disease. 

Serious persons who are offended by this doctrine, con- 
stantly forget that the reciprocal influence of the mind and 
brain is not of man's devising, but that God himself estab- 
lished it, and conferred on the organs those qualities which 
He saw to be necessary for executing the purposes to which 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 307 

He had appointed them. If the statements now made be 
unfounded, I shall be the first to give them up ; but, believ- 
ing them to be true, I cannot avoid adhering to them. 
When, therefore, I add, that I have never seen an indivi- 
dual with large organs of the animal, and small organs of 
the moral and intellectual faculties, whose conduct was stea- 
dily moral, under the ordinary temptations of life, however 
high his religious professions might be, I merely state a fact 
which the Creator himself has decreed to exist. Indeed, I 
have seen several striking instances of persons, who, after 
making a great profession of religion, ultimately disgraced 
it ; and I have observed that in all these instances, without 
one exception, the organs of the inferior propensities were 
large, and those of one or more of the moral sentiments defi- 
cient ; and I am convinced that the same conclusion, after 
sufficiently accurate and extensive observations, will force 
itself upon all candid and reflecting minds. 

My inference, therefore, is, that the Divine Spirit, re- 
vealed in Scripture as a power influencing the human mind, 
invariably acts in harmony with the laws of organization ; 
because the latter, as emanating from the same source, can 
never be in contradiction with the former ; and because a 
well-constituted brain is a condition essential to the existence 
of Christian dispositions. If this be really the fact, and if 
the constitution of the brain be in any degree regulated by 
the laws of physiology, it is impossible to doubt that a know- 
ledge of the natural laws is destined to exercise a vast influ- 
ence in rendering men capable of appreciating and practising 
Christianity. The manner in which it will do so, is explained 
in Dr. Combe's treatise on "Physiology applied to Health 
and Education, " already allued to. That work contains an 
exposition of the laws of action of the brain, and its con- 
nexion with, and influence on, the rest of the system, and 
therefore its relations generally to human improvement. 

An admirable portion of Christianity is that in which the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments is explained and enforced 
as a practical doctrine. Love thy neighbour as thyself; all 
mankind are thy neighbours ; blessed are the meek and the 
merciful ; love those that hate you and despitefully use you ; 
seek that which is pure, and holy, and of good report ; — 
these are precepts to be found in Scripture. Now, I have 
endeavoured to show, that the human faculties, and exter- 



808 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

nal nature, are so constituted as to admit of such precepts 
being reduced to practice on earth — an idea which it has 
rarely entered into the heart of man to conceive as a possi- 
bility without miraculous interference. If the philosophy 
now explained shall carry home to rational men the convic- 
tion that the order of nature fairly admits of the practical 
exemplification of these precepts by the development of its 
inherent resources, a new direction must necessarily be 
given to the pursuits of the religious instructors of mankind. 
Christianity, after its establishment by Constantine, was left 
to exert its own influence over the Roman Empire, unaided 
by printing and natural science. It is recorded in history, 
that it did not suffice to arrest the decline of morals and the 
downfall of the State, but was itself corrupted and perverted. 
In the dark ages which followed the subversion of that Em- 
pire, it was again left, unaided by human learning, to do its 
best for the regeneration of mankind ; and it became a vast 
system of superstition. Nor was it till after the invention 
of printing, and the revival of letters, that the barbarous su- 
perstructures which had been raised on the simple founda- 
tions of the Gospel were cleared away. But the period from 
the revival of letters to the present day, has been the age of 
scholastic learning, as contradistinguished from that of phi- 
losophy and science. Christianity stands before us, there- 
fore, at present, as interpreted by men who knew extremely 
little of the science of either external nature or the human 
mind. They have conceived it to be a system of spiritual 
influences, of internal operations on the soul, and of repent- 
ant preparation for another world, rather than an exposition 
of pure and lofty principles inherent in human nature itself, 
and capable of being largely developed and rendered prac- 
tical in this world. 

It is a common accusation against philosophy, that the 
study of it renders men infidels ; and this alleged fact is 
brought forward as a proof that human nature is corrupt, 
blind, and perverse, turning what ought to be its proper 
food into mortal poison. But if this were really a well- 
founded charge, the conclusion which I would draw from it 
would be, that there must be essential errors in the popular 
interpretations of revelation, when the effect of a knowledge 
of nature on the mind is to lead to infidelity. Science is of 
modern growth ; and, down to the present hour, the mass of 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 309 

Christians in every country have embraced their faith with- 
out the possibility of comparing it with the revelation of the 
Divine Will contained in the constitution of external nature, 
which, philosophically speaking, was unknown to them. 
The facts unfolded by science were unknown to the divines 
who first denied the capability of mankind to attain, by the 
development of their natural powers, a higher moral condi- 
tion than any they have hitherto reached ; and, hence, their 
decision against the capabilities of human nature has been 
pronounced causa non cognitd (the merits being unknown), 
and must be open for reconsideration. If Christianity was 
freed from many errors by the revival and spread of mere 
scholastic learning in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries, much more may we expect that the interpreta- 
tions of Scripture will be farther purified, corrected, and elu- 
cidated, by the flood of light which the sciences of human 
and physical nature, now in the course of cultivation, will 
one day shed upon religion. 

According to my view, the study of the human constitu- 
tion, of external nature, and of their relations, will become 
an object of paramount importance, with reference to a just 
appreciation of the true meaning of Scripture. Civilized 
man sees infinitely more of true and practical wisdom in 
Scripture than the savage of the wilderness, even suppos- 
ing that the latter could read and understand the words of 
the sacred volume ; and, in like manner, man, w r hen tho- 
roughly instructed in his own constitution and in that of ex- 
ternal nature, will discover still profounder truths and more 
admirable precepts in that record, than are found in it by 
ignorant, contentious, blind, conceited man, such as he has 
hitherto existed. 

History is full of instruction concerning the insufficiency 
of mere theological knowledge to protect men from practical 
errors, when their understandings are unenlightened in re- 
gard to philosophy and the constitution of nature. The part 
which the religious teachers of Europe acted in regard to 
witchcraft, affords one striking proof of the truth of this 
remark. 

It was not till towards the close of the 15th century, that 
persecutions for witchcraft began to prevail in Europe. 
By a bull of Pope Innocent VIII. in 1484, death was, for 
the first time, denounced without mercy to all who should 



310 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

be convicted of witchcraft, or of dealings with Satan ; and 
a form of process for the trial was regularly laid down by 
a wretch of the name of Sprenger, whom the pope had 
placed at the head of a commission of fire and sword. The 
succeeding popes, Alexander VI. and even Leo X, lent their 
aid in accelerating the course of this havoc-spreading engine. 
So far, however, were the commissions from being attended 
with beneficial consequences, that their only effect was to 
render the evil every day more formidable ; till, at last, if 
we are to believe the testimony of contemporary historians, 
Europe was little better than a large suburb of Pandemo- 
nium. One half of the population was either bewitching 
or bewitched. About the year 1515, 500 witches were 
executed in Geneva in three months. A thousand were 
executed in one year in the diocese of Como ; and they 
went on burning at the rate of 100 per annum for some 
time after. In Lorraine, from 1580 to 1595, Remigius 
boasts of having burned 900. In France, the multitude of 
executions about 1520 is incredible. One historian calls it 
" an almost infinite number of sorcerers." 

Germany was so fertile a soil for the supernatural, that, 
from the publication of Innocent's bull to the suppression 
of persecution for witchcraft, the number of victims could 
not be less than 100,000 ! In the town of Wurtzburg 
alone, in the course of two years — 1627-29 — there were 
twenty-nine acts of conflagration, and more than 157 per- 
sons burnt ; including not only old women, but even chil- 
dren as young as nine years. In Lindheim, from 1660 to 
1664, a twentieth part of the whole population was con- 
sumed. Other places furnished their full contingent ; and 
so familiarized was the public with these atrocious scenes, 
that it relished and gloried in them : singing the events of 
them to popular airs, and representing them in hideous en- 
gravings, with devils dragging away " their own ,*" while 
the clergy preached solemn discourses, called "witch-ser- 
mons," upon occasion of every sacrifice — the eflect of which 
was, of course, to inspire with fresh zeal to collect fuel for 
another. 

England was not free from the same madness. Three 
thousand victims were executed during the reie^ of the 
Long Parliament alone ; and it .is a melancholy spectacle to 
find a man like Sir Matthaw Hale condemning wretches 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 311 

to destruction, on evidence which a child would now be 
disposed to laugh at. A better order of things commenced 
with the Chief-Justiceship of Holt, in consequence of whose 
firm charge to the jury on one of these trials, a verdict of 
not guilty — almost the first then on record in a trial for 
witchcraft — was found. In about ten other trials by Holt, 
from 1694 to 1701, the result was the same. Yet, in 1716, 
a Mrs. Hicks, and her daughter aged nine, were hanged at 
Huntingdon for selling their souls to the devil, and raising 
a storm by pulling oft* their stockings and making a lather 
of soap ! With this crowning atrocity, the catalogue of 
murders in England closes, the penal statutes against witch- 
craft being repealed in 1736, and the pretended exercise of 
such arts being punished in future by imprisonment and 
pillory. 

Barrington, in his observations on the statute of 20th 
Henry VI, does not hesitate to estimate the number of in- 
dividuals put to death in England, on the charge of witch- 
craft, at 30,000 ! 

Scotland, too, must bear her share of the bloody stain of 
these abominable doings. Till the Reformation, little or 
no regard was paid to this subject ; but soon after that 
event, a raging thirst for destruction took possession of the 
nation. In 1563, an act of Parliament was passed, enact- 
ing the punishment of death against witches and consultors 
with witches. The consequences of this authoritative re- 
cognition of the creed of witchcraft became immediately 
obvious in the reign of James VI, which followed. Witch- 
craft beceme the all-engrossing topic of the day ; and it 
was the ordinary accusation resorted to, whenever it was 
the object of one individual to ruin another. A number of 
the trials are reported in Mr. Pitcairn's recent and valuable 
publication of the records of the Court of Justiciary. The 
first case is in 1572, of which no particulars are given, ex- 
cept the name of the unfortunate woman, and the doom— 
" convict and brynt." Thirty-five trials are recorded subse- 
quently, to the end of James's reign, in all of which the hor- 
rid result is the same. The trials proceed, in the course of 
years, and the confessions are obtained by torture with 
thumb-screws and boots, and pricking with sharp instru- 
ments ; while stranglings and burnings follow of course. 



312 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

The scene darkens towards the close of the reign of Charles 
I, with the increasing dominion of the puritans. In 1640, 
the General Assembly passed an act, that all ministers 
should take particular note of witches and charmers, and 
that the commissioners should recommend to the supreme 
judicature the unsparing application of the laws against 
them. In 1643, after setting forth the increase of the crime, 
they recommended the granting of a standing commission 
from the Privy Council or Justiciary, to " any understanding 
gentlemen or magistrates," to apprehend, try, and execute 
justice against delinquents. By the urgency of the General 
Assembly, who resumed the subject in 1644, 1645, and 
1649, an act of Parliament was passed in the last named 
year, confirming and extending the statute of Queen Mary, 
passed in 1563. As was to be expected, convictions, which 
had been fewer since James's time, increase, and the cases 
are more horrible. Thirty trials appear on the record be- 
tween 1649 and 1660, in which there seems to have been 
only one acquittal ; while at one western circuit, in 1 659, 
seventeen persons were convicted and burnt for the imputed 
crime. Numerous, however, as are the cases in the records 
of Justiciary, these afford a most inadequate idea of the 
extent to which this pest prevailed over the country ; for the 
Privy Council was in the habit of granting commissions to 
resident gentlemen and ministers, to examine, and afterward 
to try and execute, witches all over Scotland ; and so 
numerous were these commissions, that one author expresses 
his astonishment at the number found in the registers. 
Under these commissions, multitudes were burnt in every 
part of the kingdom. 

It is matter of history, that, in cases of this kind, the 
clergy displayed the most intemperate zeal. It was before 
them that the poor wretches were first brought for examina- 
tion, — in most cases after a preparatory course of solitary 
confinement, cold, famine, want of sleep, or actual torture. 
On some occasions, the clergy themselves actually per- 
formed the part of the prickers, and inserted long pins into 
the flesh of the witches, in order to try their sensibility ; 
and, in all cases, they laboured with the most persevering 
investigations to obtain from the accused a confession which 
might afterward be used against them on their trial, and 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 313 

which, in more than one instance, formed, although re- 
tracted, the sole evidence on which the conviction took 
place. 

After 1662, the violence of the mania in Scotland began 
to decline ; and to the great lawyers of the time is due the 
credit of first stemming the foul torrent. " From the hor- 
ridness of the crime," says Sir George Mackenzie in his 
Criminal Law, " I do conclude, that of all crimes it requires 
the clearest relevancy and most convincing probature ; and 

I condemn, next to the wretches themselves, those cruel and 
too forward judges, who burn persons by thousands as guilty 
of this crime." The trials after this became fewer and 
fewer, and the last execution took place at Dornoch in 1722. 
The statutes were finally repealed in 1735.* 

So little light did the Bible afford regarding the atrocity 
of the proceedings against witches, that the Secession 
Church of Scotland, comprising many intelligent clergy- 
men and a large number of the most serious and religious 
of the people, complained, in their annual Confession of 
personal and national sins, (printed in an act of their As- 
sociate Presbytery at Edinburgh in 1743), of " the penal 
statutes against witches having been repealed by Parlia- 
ment, contrary to the express law of God." This defection 
is classed by Dr. John Brown of Haddington, one of the 
great leaders of the Secession Church about the middle and 
end of last century, among " the practical backslidings from 
the once attained to and covenanted work of reformation, 
which have happened in the preceding and present age, as 
abuses of the singular favours of God." 

During the whole of these proceedings, the clergy, both 
Catholic and Protestant, were in possession of revelation as 
fully and freely as they are at the present day ; and in Scot- 
land, in particular, the Reformation had been completed, 
and the people put in possession of the Bible, nearly a cen- 
tury before the cessation of these persecutions. Not only 
so, but the Bible itself was perversely used as the warrant 
of the atrocities, and religion employed to fan the flame of 

* These particulars respecting persecutions for witchcraft are 
given on the authority of a learned and elaborate article, under- 
utood to be from the pen of Professor Moir of Edinburgh, in the 

II th Number of the Foreign Quarterly Review. 

27 



314 ON THE RELATION BETWEBK 

cruelty and superstition. If any facts can prove that the 
Creator intended man to use his intellectual faculties, and 
to study the revelation of His will contained in the works 
of nature, in addition to the Bible, as a guide to his conduct, 
— and that the Bible, was never intended to supersede the 
necessity of all other knowledge, — those now detailed must 
have this effect. The great difference, between Christians 
of the present day, who regard these executions as great 
crimes, and the pious ministers who inflicted and the serious 
people who witnessed them, consists in the superior know- 
ledge possessed by the moderns, of physical science, which 
has opened up to their understandings views of nature and 
of God, widely different from those entertained by their .an- 
cestors under the guidance of the Bible alone. 

Nothing can afford a more convincing proof of the ne- 
cessity of using all the lights in our power, by which to as- 
certain the true meaning of Scripture and the soundness of 
our interpretations of it, than the wide diversity of the 
opinions which even the most learned and pious divines 
have based upon the Bible. Another fact of some import- 
ance in relation to this matter is, that the manuscripts which 
handed down the sacred writings to us from ancient times 
vary in many important passages, sometimes through the 
ignorance and carelessness of transcribers, and sometimes 
in consequence of wilful corruption and interpolations by 
contending sects. The following passages, extracted from 
a celebrated treatise by one of the greatest ornaments of 
the Church of England, Bishop Taylor, are exceedingly 
instructive on this subject. " There are," says he, " so 
many thousands of copies, that were written by persons of 
several interests and persuasions, — such different under- 
standings and tempers, — such distinct abilities and weak- 
nesses, — that it is no wonder there is so great a variety of 
readings both in the Old Testament and in the New. In 
the Old Testament, the Jews pretend that the Christians 
have corrupted many places, on purpose to make symphony 
between both the Testaments. On the other side, the 
Christians have had so much reason to suspect the Jews, 
that when Aquila had translated the Bible in their schools, 
and had been taught by them, they rejected the edition, 
many of them, and some of them called it heresy to follow 
it. And Justin Martyr justified it to Tryphon, that the 



SCIENCE, AND SCRIPTURE. 315 

r ews had defalked many sayings from the books of the old 
prophets. ... I shall not need to urge, that there are some 
words so near in sound that the scribes might easily mis- 
take. . . .The instances of this kind are too many, as appears 
in the variety of readings in several copies, proceeding from 
the negligence or ignorance of the transcribers, or the ma- 
licious endeavour of heretics, or the inserting marginal notes 
into the text, or the nearness of several words. . . .But so it 
is that this variety of reading is not of slight consideration ; 
for although it be demonstrably true, that all things neces- 
sary to faith and good manners are preserved from altera- 
tion and corruption, because they are of things necessary, 
and they could not be necessary unless they were delivered 
to us, — God, in his goodness and his justice, having obliged 
himself to preserve that which he hath bound us to observe 
and keep ; yet, in other things which God hath not obliged 
himself so punctually to preserve, in these things, since 
variety of reading is crept in, every reading takes away a 
degree of certainty from any proposition derivative from 
those places so read : and if some copies, especially if they 
be public and notable, omit a verse or a tittle, every argu- 
ment from such a tittle or verse loses much of its strength 
and reputation." — Discourse of the Liberty of Prophecying, 
sect. iii. <J 4. 

As to consulting the Scriptures in the original tongues, 
this says the Bishop, " is to small purpose : for indeed it 
will expound the Hebrew and the Greek, and rectify trans- 
lations ; but I know no man that says that the Scriptures 
in Hebrew and Greek are easy and certain to be under- 
stood, and that they are hard in Latin and English : the 
difficulty is in the thing, however it be expressed — the least 
is in the language. If the original languages were our mo- 
ther-tongue, Scripture is not much the easier to us ; and a 
natural Greek or a Jew can with no more reason or au- 
thority obtrude his interpretations upon other men's con- 
sciences, than a man of another nation. Add to this, that 
the inspection of the original is no more certain way of in- 
€rpretation of Scripture now, than it was to the fathers 
and primitive age of the Church ; and yet he that observes 
what infinite variety of translations were in the first ages 
of the Church (as St. Jerome observes), and never a one like 
another, will think that we shall differ as much in our in 



316 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

terpretations as they did, and that the medium is as uncer 
tain to us as it was to them ; and so it is : witness the great 
number of late translations, and the infinite number of com- 
mentaries, which are too pregnant an argument that we 
neither agree in the understanding of the words nor of the 
sense." "Men," he adds most justly, "do not learn their 
doctrines from Scripture, but come to the understanding of 
Scripture with preconceptions and ideas of doctrines of their 
own ; and then no wonder that scriptures look like pictures, 
wherein every man in the room believes they look on him 
only, and that wheresoever he stands or how often soever 
he changes his station." — Sect. iv. $ 5, 6. 

The folly of setting up any isolated passage of Scripture 
against truths brought to light by experiment and observa- 
tion, is rendered still more obvious by what Bishop Taylor 
says respecting the extreme difficulty of discovering the real 
meaning of many parts of the Bible, even where there are 
sufficient grounds for believing the text to be genuine. 
" Since there are in Scripture," he observes, many other 
mysteries, and matters of question, upon which there is a 
veil ; since there are so many copies with infinite varieties 
of reading ; since a various interpunction, a parenthesis, a 
letter, an accent, may much alter the sense ; since some 
places have divers literal senses, many have spiritual, 
mystical, and allegorical meanings ; since there are so many 
tropes, metonymies, ironies, hyperboles, proprieties and im- 
proprieties of language, whose understanding depends upon 
such circumstances that it is almost impossible to know the 
proper interpretation, now that the knowledge of such cir- 
cumstances and particular stories is irrevocably lost : since 
there are some mysteries which, at the best advantage of 
expression, are not easy to be apprehended ; and whose 
explication, by reason of our imperfections, must needs be 
dark, sometimes weak, sometimes unintelligible : and lastly, 
since those ordinary means of expounding Scripture, as 
searching the originals, conference of places, parity of 
reason, and analogy of faith, are all dubious, uncertain, and 
very fallible ; he that is wisest, and, by consequence, the 
likeliest to expound truest in all probability of reason, will 
be very far from confidence ; because every one of these, and 
many more, are like so many degrees of improbability and 
uncertainty, all depressing our certainty of finding out truth 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 317 

in such mysteries, and amidst so many difficulties. And 
therefore a wise man, that considers this, would not willingly 
be prescribed to by others ; and therefore, if he also be a 
just man, he will not impose upon others; for it is best 
every man should be left in that liberty from which no man 
can justly take him, unless he could secure him from error." 
—Sect. iv. $ 8. 

On this subject the reader is referred also to an able 
" Essay on the Plenary and Verbal Inspiration of the Holy 
Scriptures, by Donald Fraser, D. D., Minister of the Gospel, 
Kennoway, Fifeshire."* The following passage illustrates 
the propriety of acting upon Bishop Taylor's suggestions : 
— " Be it observed, that when the New Testament writers, 
in quoting from the Old, affirm that the Scripture was ful- 
fttled, they do not always mean that an ancient prediction 
was literally accomplished. In some instances they apply 
this term to the verification of a type ; as when John, after 
relating the circumstance of the soldiers not breaking the 
legs of Jesus, adds a quotation respecting the paschal lamb : 
4 These things were done that the Scripture should be ful- 
filled, A bone of him shall not be broken.' (Chap. xix. 36, 
compared with Exod. xii. 36.) In other places they only 
accommodate the citation to the subject of their narrative. 
Thus, Matthew, after relating Herod's cruel murder of the 
babes in Bethlehem and its vicinity, immediately adds : 
' Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the 
prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamenta- 
tion, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for 
her children, and would not be comforted, because they are 
not.' (Matth. ii. 17, 18, compared with Jer. xxxi. 15.) 
That is to say, the great lamentation and inconsolable grief 
amongst the mothers of Bethlehem, occasioned by Herod's 
embruing his hands in the blood of their unoffending 
children, may be happily illustrated by the prophet's descrip- 
tion of the sorrows attending the Babylonish captivity ; 
where, by a beautiful figure, he represents Rachel as bitterly 
deploring the loss of her offspring. 

" An important critical observation of the late Dr. Camp- 
bell's must not be here omitted. He justly observes, that, 
in many passages of the New Testament, it would have 

* Affleck, Edinburgh, and Rutherglen & Co. Glasgow, 1S31 
27* 



318 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

been proper to render the original term irXvpou by the 
English word verify, in preference to fulfil ; for this last 
word * has a much more limited signification, and gives a 
handle to cavillers where the original gives none. It makes 
the sacred penmen appear to call those things predictions 
which plainly were not, and which they never meant to de- 
nominate predictions.' ' Verify is, accordingly, the term 
which that distinguished interpreter usually prefers in his 
own Translation of the Four Gospels." — Chap. iii. <J 7. 

In the remarks offered in the present chapter I do not de- 
preciate the importance of the Bible ; I only very humbly 
endeavour to vindicate the study of the Creator's will in his 
works as well as in his word, — to show that the human mind 
needs illumination from both to direct our conduct towards 
virtue, — and to prove that without knowledge of the former, 
we may grievously misunderstand the meaning of the lat- 
ter. In the words of Archbishop Whately, I consider that 
" we are bound to use our own natural faculties in the search 
after all that is within the reach of these faculties ; and that 
most especially ought we to try, by their own proper evi- 
dence, questions which form no part of revelation properly 
so called, but which are incidentally alluded to in the Sa- 
cred Writings." "If it be true that man's duty coincides 
with his real interest, both in this world and in the next, the 
better he is qualified, by intellectual culture and diffusion of 
knowledge, to understand his duty and his interests, the 
greater prospect there would seem to be (other points being 
equal) of his moral improvement." 

An objection has been stated against the doctrine of the 
divine government of the world by established laws, that it is 
inconsistent with belief in the efficacy of prayer. This ob- 
jection has been often urged and answered ; indeed it has 
been deliberately settled by the Church of Scotland itself, in 
harmony with the views advocated in this treatise. In a 
Sermon on Prayer, by the Rev. William Linchman, D. D., 
principal and Professor of Divinity, in the College of Glas- 
gow, the following passage occurs : — " It is objected," says 
he, " That, since God is infinite in goodness, he is always 
disposed to bestow on his creatures whatever is proper for 
"them ; and, since he is infinite in wisdom, he will always 
choose the fittest time, and best manner of bestowing it. To 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 31S 

what purpose, then do we entreat him to do what he cer- 
tainly will do without any solicitation or importunity !*' 
To this it may be answered, That, as it is not the design 
of prayer to give information to our Creator of things he 
was not acquainted with before ; so neither is it the design 
of it to move his affections, as good speakers move the 
hearts of their hearers, by the pathetic arts of oratory ; nor 
to raise his pity, as beggars, by their importunities and 
tears, work upon the compassion of the bystanders. God 
is not subject to those sudden passions and emotions of 
mind which we feel ; nor to any change of his measures 
and conduct by their influence : he is not wrought upon 
and changed by our prayers ; for with him there is no va- 
riableness nor shadow of turning. Prayer only works its 
effect upon us, as it comtributes to change the temper of our 
minds, to beget or improve right dispositions in them, to 
lay them open to the impressions of spiritual objects, and 
thus qualify us for receiving the favour and approbation of 
our Maker, and all those assistances which he has promised 
to those who call upon him in sincerity and in truth. The 
efficacy of prayer does not lie in the mere asking ; but in 
its being the means of producing that frame of mind which 
qualifies us to receive."* 

Dr. Leechman was prosecuted for the alleged heresy of 
these doctrines before the Presbytery of Glasgow, in Fe- 
bruary 1744. The opinion of the Presbytery was unfa- 
vourable ; but the question was appealed to the Synod, 
which M found no reason to charge the said Professor with 
any unsoundness in the faith, expressed in the passages 
of the sermon complained of." The case was afterward 
carried by appeal to the Genaral Assembly. " That court," 
says Dr. Wodrow, in his Life of Dr. Leechman, prefixed to 
the Sermons, " when the cause came before them, wisely 
referred it to a select committee, and adopted their judgment 
without a vote. They found, * That the Synod of Glasgow 
and Ayr had sufficient reason to take into their own hands 
the cognizance of the inquiry touching the sermon.' They 
confirmed the judgment passed by that Synod, and * pro- 
hibited the Presbytery of Glasgow to commence or carry on 

* Dr. Leeohman's Sermons, Lond. 1789, Serm. iii. p. 192. 



320 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

any further or other proceedings against the Professor, on 
account of that sermon.' " 

Since this decision, the views delivered by Professor 
Leechman have been unhesitatingly taught by Scotch di- 
vines. Dr. Blair, in his sermon " On the Unchangeableness 
of the Divine Nature," observes : " It will be proper to 
begin this head of discourse by removing an objection which 
the doctrine I have illustrated may appear to form against 
religious services, and, in particular, against the duty of 
prayer. To what purpose, it may be urged, is homage ad- 
dressed to a Being whose purpose is unalterably fixed ; to 
whom our righteousness extendelh not ; whom by no argu- 
ments we can persuade, and by no supplications we can 
mollify 1 The objection would have weight, if our religious 
addresses were designed to work any alteration on God ; 
either by giving him information of what he did not know, 
or by exciting affections which he did not possess ; or by 
inducing him to change measures which he had previously 
formed. But they are only crude and imperfect notions of 
religion which can suggest such ideas. The change which 
our devotions are intended to make, is upon ourselves, not 
upon the Almighty. Their chief efficacy is derived from 
the good dispositions which they raise and cherish in the 
human soul. By pouring out pious sentiments and desires 
before God, by adoring his perfection and confessing our 
own unworthiness, by expressing our dependence on his 
aid, our gratitude for his past favours, our submission to his 
present will, our trust in his future mercy, we cultivate such 
affections as suit our place and station in the universe, and 
are thereby prepared for becoming objects of the divine 
grace." — Vol. ii. 

The same views were taught by the philosophers of the 
last century. " The Being that made the world," says 
Lord Karnes, " governs it by laws that are inflexible, be- 
cause they are the best ; and to imagine that he can be 
moved by prayers, oblations, or sacrifices, to vary his plan 
of government, is an impious thought, degrading the Deity 
to a level with ourselves." His Lordship's opinion relative 
to the advantage of public worship, shows that he did not 
conceive the foregoing view of prayer to be in the least 
inconsistent with its reasonableness and utility. " Tha 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 321 

principle of devotion, he says, " like most of our other 
principles, partakes of the imperfection of our nature ; yet, 
however faint originally, it is capable of being greatly invi- 
gorated by cultivation and exercise. Private exercise is not 
sufficient. Nature, and consequently the God of nature, 
require public exercise or public worship ; for devotion is 
communicative, like joy or grief; and, by mutual commu- 
nication in a numerous assembly, is greatly invigorated. 
A regular habit of expressing publicly our gratitude and 
resignation never fails to purify the mind, tending to wean 
it from every unlawful pursuit. This is the true motive of 
public worship ; not what is commanly inculcated^ — that it 
is required from us as a testimony to our Maker of our obe- 
dienco to his laws : God, who knows the heart, needs no 
sueh testimony."* 

In closing this chapter, I may observe, that many excel- 
lent and sincere Christians, to whom I am most anxious to 
avoid giving offence, labour under great disadvantages in 
judging of the truth and importance of several of the views 
stated in this Work, in consequence of their entire igno- 
rance of the functions of the brain, and the laws of its ac- 
tivity. Many of them have been educated in the belief, that 
human nature is entirely corrupt and wicked ; and when, 
in consequence of private or public devotion, they become 
conscious of vivid love to God and benevolence to men, and 
of aspirations after general purity and excellence, springing 
up in their minds, they ascribe these emotions exclusively 
to the direct influence of the Divine Spirit, — without being 
in the least aware of the extent to which a large develop- 
ment of the moral organs, combined with an active tempera- 
ment, contributes to this effect. The phrenologist, in con- 
templating these organs operating in excess, or, in a state 
of disease, obtains light on this subject which other persons 
cannot reach. Mere excess in size and activity leads to 
fanaticism and a persuasion of inspiration, such as occurred 
in Bunyan, Sweuenborg, and the late Edward Irving. I 
examined the head of the Rev. Edward Irving before he 
had become known to the public, and noted the organs of 
Imitation, Wonder, Ideality, Veneration, Self- Esteem, Con- 
scientiousness, and Firmness as large : Wonder, Self- 

* Sketches, B. iii. Sk. 3. Ch. iii. $ I 



322 CONCLUSION. 

Esteem, and Firmness predominated ; and these appear to 
have attained almost to diseased activity in the latter years 
of his life. Diseased activity produces belief in actual com- 
munication with heaven. Christianity cannot fail to be 
benefited by the light which Phrenology is shedding on the 
organs in health as well as in disease.* 



CONCLUSION. 

The question has frequently been asked, What is the 
practical use of Phrenology, even supposing it to be true ? 
A few observations will enable us to answer this inquiry, 
and at the same time, to present a brief summajy of the 
doctrine of the preceding work. 

Prior to the age of Copernicus, the earth and sun pre- 
sented to the eye phenomena exactly similar, to those which 
they now exhibit ; but their motions appeared in a very 
different light to the understanding. 

Before the age of Newton, the revolutions of the planets 
were known as matter of fact ; but mankind was ignorant 
of the principle of their motions. 

Previously to the dawn of modern chemistry, many of the 
qualities of physical substances were ascertained by obser- 
vation ; but their ultimate principles and relations were not 
understood. 

Knowledge, as I observed in the Introduction, may be 
made beneficial in two ways — either by rendering the sub- 
stance discovered directly subservient to human enjoyment ; 

* See on this subject Dr. Andrew Combe's Observations on 
Mental Derangement, pp. 184-189 ; System of Phrenology, 
section on Wonder ; Remarks on Demonology and Witchcraft, 
in the Phren. Jour. vi. 504 ; and, in the 44th and 45th Numbers 
of the same Journal, "Observations on Religious Fanaticism, 
illustrated by a Comparison of the Belief and Conduct of noted 
Religious Enthusiasts with those of Patients in the Mcntros* 
.Lunatic Asylum. By W. A. F. Browne, Esq. Medical Super 
intendant of that Institution." 



CONCLUSION. 323 

«r, where this is impossible, by modifying human conduct 
in harmony with its qualities. While knowledge of any 
department of nature remains imperfect and empirical, the 
unknown qualities of the objects comprehended in it may 
render our efforts either to apply or to act in accordance with 
those which are known, altogether abortive. Hence it is 
only after ultimate principles have been discovered, their 
relations ascertained, and this knowledge systematised, that 
science can attain its full character of utility. The merits 
of Copernicus and Newton consist in having rendered this 
service to astronomy. 

Before the appearance of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, man- 
kind were practically acquainted with the feelings and in- 
tellectual operations of their own minds, and anatomists 
knew the appearances of the brain. But the science of 
mind was very much in the same state as that of the hea- 
venly bodies prior to the times of Copernicus and Newton. 

First, No unanimity prevailed among philosophers con- 
cerning the elementary feelings and intellectual powers of 
man. Individuals deficient in Conscientiousness, for in- 
stance, denied that the sentiment of justice was a primitive 
mental quality : others, deficient in Veneration, asserted that 
man was not naturally prone to worship, and ascribed reli- 
gion to the invention of priests. 

Secondly, The extent to which the primitive faculties differ 
in strength, was matter of dispute, or of vague conjecture ; 
and, concerning many attainments, there was no agreement 
among philosophers whether they were the gifts of nature 
or the results of mere cultivation. 

Thirdly, Different modes or states of the same feeling 
were often mistaken for different feelings ; and modes of 
action of all the intellectual faculties were mistaken for dis- 
tinct faculties. 

Fourthly, The brain, confessedly the most important 
organ of the body, and that with which the nerves of the 
senses, of motion, and of feeling directly communicate, 
had no ascertained functions. Mankind were ignorant of 
its uses, and of its influence on the mental faculties. They 
indeed still dispute that its different parts are the organs 
of different mental powers, and that the vigour of each 
faculty bears a proportion, cateris paribus, to the size of its 
organ. 



324 CONCLTTS*OX. 

If, in physics, imperfect and empirical knowledge rei>- 
ders the unknown qualities of bodies liable to frustrate the 
efforts of man to apply or to accommodate his conduct to 
their known qualities, — and if only a complete and sytema- 
tic exhibition of ultimate principles, and their relations, can 
confer on science its full character of utility, — the same doe- 
trine applies with equal or greater force to the philosophy of 
man. 

The science of Politics embraces forms of government, 
and the relations between different states. All government 
is designed to combine the efforts of individuals, and to regu- 
late their conduct when united. To arrive at the best means 
of accomplishing this end, systematic knowledge of the na- 
ture of man seems highly important. A despotism, for ex- 
ample, may restrain some abuses of the propensities, but it 
assuredly impedes the exercise of reflexion, and others of 
the highest and noblest powers. A form of government 
can be suited to the nature of man only when it is calculated 
to permit the legitimate use, and to restrain the abuses, of 
all his mental feelings and capacities : and how can such a 
government be devised, while these faculties, with their 
spheres of action and external relations, are imperfectly 
ascertained ? Again, all relations between different states 
must also be in accordance with the nature of man, to prove 
permanently beneficial ; and the question reeurs, How are 
these to be framed while that nature is a matter of conjec- 
ture'? Napoleon disbelieved in a sentiment of justice as an 
innate quality of the mind, and, in his relations with other 
states, relied on fear and interest as the grand motives ot 
conduct : but that sentiment existed, and, combined with 
other faculties which he outraged, — prompted Europe to 
hurl him from his throne. If Napoleon had comprehended 
the principles of human nature, and their relations, as for- 
cibly and clearly as the principles of mathematics, in which 
he excelled, his understanding would have greatly modified 
his conduct, and Europe would have escaped prodigious 
calamities. 

Legislation, civil and criminal, is intended to regulate 
and direct the human faculties in their efforts at gratification ; 
and laws, to be useful, must accord with the constitution of 
these faculties. But how can salutary laws be enacted, 
while the subject to be governed, or human nature, is not 



CONCLUSION. 325 

tccurately understood 1 The inconsistency and intricacy ot 
the laws, even in enlightened nations, have afforded themes 
for the satirist in every age ; — yet how could the case be 
otherwise 1 Legislators provided rules for directing the 
qualities of human nature, which they conceived themselves 
to know ; but either error in their conceptions, or the effects 
of other qualities unknown or unattended to, defeated their 
intentions. The law, for example, punishing heresy with 
burning, was addressed by our ancestors to Cautiousness 
and the Love of Life ; but Intellect, Veneration, Conscien- 
tiousness, and Firmness, were omitted in their estimate of 
human principles of action ; — and these set the law at defi- 
ance. There are many laws still in the statute-book, equally 
at variance with the nature of man. 

Education is intended to enlighten the intellect, to train 
it and the moral sentiments to vigour, and to repress the too 
great activity of the selfish feelings. But how can this be 
successfully accomplished, when the faculties and sentiments 
themselves, the laws to which they are subjected,-and their 
relations to external objects, are unascertained 1 Accord- 
ingly, the theories and practices observed in education are 
innumerable and contradictory ; which could not happen if 
men knew the constitution of the object which they were 
training. 

In an " Essai sur la Statistique morale de la France," by 
Mons. A. M. Guerry, published at Paris in 1833, it is stated 
that crimes against property and person are most numerous 
in proportion to the population in those departments of 
France — the north and east— in which the people are the 
best educated, the richest, and the most industrious. This 
must be owing in part to the increased power which educa- 
tion gives of doing either good or evil, and partly to defects 
in the education afforded.* The philosophy of man being 

* It is proper to remark, however, that M. Guerry's statement, 
supposing it to be grounded on sufficient data, does not show that 
education tends to increase rather than diminish crime ; for, as a 
writer in the Phrenological Journal observes, "until it be proved 
that education has the same kind of subjects to operate on in 
every part of France, its effects cannot be judged of from such 
data as those furnished by M. Guerry." After stating reasons 
for concluding that the generality of heads are better in some parts 
of France than in others, the writer adds : " Now, this important 
28 



326 CONCLUSION. 

unknown, children are not taught any rational views of the 
plan of life ; they are not instructed in the constitution of 
society, and obtain no sufficient information concerning the 
sources of real enjoyment. They are not taught any system 
of morals based on the nature of man and his social rela- 
tions, but are left each to grope his- way to happiness ac- 
cording to the dictates of his individual mind. They see 
the rich pursuing pleasure and fashion ' y and* if they follow 

fact ought not to be overlooked, as it has hitherto been, m judg 
ing of the influence of education ; for it can hardly be doubted, 
that educated but inferior minds will display less morality than 
minds which are uneducated but naturally much superior. 
What should we say of a man who should call in question the 
efficacy of medical treatment, because a patient tainted from birth 
with consumption, and who had been long under the care of a 
physician, was not so healthy as a person with naturally sound 
lungs, who had never taken medical advice in his life ? But for 
the treatment, the consumptive man would have been much worse 
than he actually was, and probably would have died in early 
youth. To judge correctly, therefore, of the question at issue, 
we must compare the present amount of crime in particular de- 
partments of France, with its amount in the same departments 
when there was either very little instruction or none at all. In 
this manner we shall also avoid being misled by the effects of 
other influences ; such as the density of thinness of the population, 
■ — the employment of the people in agriculture or manufactures, — 
andjheir residence on the coasts, in the interior, or in moun- 
tainous or fertile districts. Were such a trial made, I think it 
would almost without exception be found, in cases where n« 
great change of circumstances had occurred, that in exact pro- 
portion to the increase of education there had been an obvious 
diminution of crime. J am well aware that, by the system of 
instruction generally pursued, the moral feelings, which restrain 
from crime, are wholly neglected : but cultivation even of the 
intehect appears favourable to morality ; first, by giving periods 
of repose to the lower propensities, of whose excessive activity 
crime is the result ; secondly, by promoting the formation of habits 
of regularity, subordination, and obedience ; and, thirdly, by 
strengthening and informing the intellect, and thereby enabling 
it to see more clearly the dangerous consequences of crime. No 
doubt there are criminals on whom an excellent intellectual 
education has been bestowed ; but instead of thence inferring 
that education increases the liability of mankind to crime, I think 
it may with great reason be asked, whether, had the same indi- 
viduals wanted education altogether, their crimes would not have 
been ten times more atrocious." — Phren. Jour vol. ix. p. 268 



CONCLUSION. 327 

euch examples, they must resort to crime for the means of 
gratification : yet there is no solid instruction given to 
them, sufficient to satisfy their understandings that the rich 
themselves are straying from the paths that lead to solid and 
lasting happiness, and that it is to be found only in other 
and higher occupations. 

Morals and Religion, also, cannot assume a systematic 
and thoroughly demonstrable character, until the elemen- 
tary faculties of the mind, and their relations, shall be ac- 
certained. 

It is presumable that the Deity, in creating the moral 
powers and the external world, really adapted the one to the 
other ; so that individuals and nations, in pursuing morality, 
must, in every instance, be promoting their best interests, 
and, in departing from it, must be sacrificing them to pas- 
sion or to illusory notions of advantage. But, until the 
nature of man, and the relationship between it and the ex- 
ternal world, shall be scientifically ascertained, and sys- 
tematically expounded, it will be impossible to support 
morality by the powerful demonstration that interest coin- 
cides with it. The tendency in most men to view ex- 
pediency as not always coincident with justice, affords a 
striking proof of the limited knowledge of the constitution 
of man and the external world still existing in society. 

The diversities of doctrine in religion, too, obviously owe 
their origin to ignorance of the primitive faculties and their 
relations. The relative strength of the faculties differs in 
different individuals, and each person is most alive to ob- 
jects and views connected with the powers predominant in 
himself. Hence, in reading the Scriptures, one is convinced 
that they establish Calvinism ; another, possessing a dif- 
ferent combination of faculties, discovers in them Lu- 
theranism ; and a third is satisfied that Unitarianism is the 
only true interpretation. These individuals have, in ge- 
neral, no distinct conception that the views which strike 
them most forcibly, appear in a different light to minds 
differently constituted. A correct interpretation of revela- 
tion must harmonize with the dictates of the moral senti- 
ments and well-informed intellect, holding the animal pro- 
pensities in subordination. It may legitimately go beyond 
what they, unaided, could reach ; but it cannot contradict 
them : because this would be setting the revelation of the 



d28 CONCLUSION. 

Bible in opposition to the dictates of the regulating faculties 
constituted by the Creator — a proceeding which cannot be 
admitted, since the Deity is too powerful and wise to be in- 
consistent. But mankind will never be induced to bow to 
such interpretations, while each takes his individual mind 
as a standard of human nature in general, and conceives 
that his own impressions are identical with absolute truth. 
The establishment of the philosophy of man, therefore, on a 
scientific basis, and in a systematic form, must aid the cause 
both of morality and of religion. 

The professions, pursuits, hours op exertion, and 
amusements of individuals, ought also to bear reference to 
their physical and mental constitution ; but hitherto no 
guiding principal has been possessed, to regulate practice in 
these important particulars— -another evidence that the 
science of man has been unknown. 

In consequence of the want of a philosophy of man, there 
is little harmony between the different departments of hu 
man pursuit. God is one ; and as He is intelligent, bene 
volent, and ^powerful, we may reasonably conclude that 
creation is one harmonious system, in which the physical is 
adapted to the moral, the moral to the physical, and every 
department of these grand divisions to the whole. But at 
present, many principles clearly revealed by philosophy are 
impracticable, because the institutions of society have not 
been founded with a due regard to their existence. An 
educated lady, for example, or a member of one of the learn- 
ed professions, may perceive with the clearest conviction 
that God, by the manner in which he has constituted the 
body, and connected the mind with the brain, has positively 
enjoined muscular exertion, as indispensable to the posses- 
sion of sound health, the enjoyment of life, and the rearing 
of a healthy offspring; and, nevertheless, they may find 
themselves so hedged round by routine of employment, the 
fashions of society, the influence of opinion, and the posi- 
tive absence of all arrangements suited to the purpose, that 
they are rendered nearly as incapable of yielding this obe- 
dience to God's law as if they were imprisoned in a dun- 
geon. 

By religion we are commanded to set our affections on 
things above, and not to permit our minds to be engrossed 
with the cares of the world ; we are desired to seek godli- 



CONCLUSION. 329 

mess, and eschew selfishness, contention, and the vanities 
of life. These precepts must have been intended to be 
practically followed, otherwise it was a mockery of mankind 
to give them forth : But if they were intended to be prac- 
tised, God must have arranged the inherent constitution of 
man, and that of the world, in such a manner as to admit of 
mankind obeying them, — and not only so, but to render men 
happy in proportion as they should practise, and miserable 
as they should neglect them. Nevertheless, when we 
survey human society in the forms in which it has hitherto 
existed, and in which it now exists, these precepts appear 
to have been, and to be now, absolutely impracticable to 
ninety-nine out of every hundred of civilized men. Suppose 
the most eloquent and irresistibly convincing discourse on 
the Christian duties to be delivered on Sunday to a congre- 
gation of Manchester manufacturers and their operatives, 01 
to London merchants, Essex farmers, or Westminister law- 
yers, how would they find their respective spheres of life 
adapted for acting practically on their convictions 1 They 
are all commanded to love God with their whole heart and 
soul, and to resist the world and the flesh, or, in philosophical 
language, to support their moral affections and intellectual 
powers in habitual activity, — to direct them to noble, elevat- 
ing, and beneficial objects,-^and to resist the subjugation 
of these higher attributes of their minds to animal pleasure, 
sordid selfishness, and worldly ambition. The moral and 
intellectual powers assent to the reasonableness of these 
precepts, and rejoice in the prospect of their practical ap- 
plication ; but, on Monday morning, the manufacturers, 
owing to the institutions of society, and the department of 
life into which they have been cast before they had either 
reason or moral perception to direct their choice, must com- 
mence a course of ceaseless toil, — the workmen that they 
may support life, and the masters that they may avoid ruin, 
or accumulate wealth. Saturday evening finds them worn 
out with mental and bodily exertion, continued through all 
the intermediate days, and directed to pursuits, connected 
with this world alone. Sunday dawns upon them in a state 
of mind widely at variance with the Christian condition. 
In like manner, the merchant must devote himself to his 
bargains, the farmer to his plough, and the lawyer to his 
b.iefs, with corresponding assiduity; so that their moral 
28* 



330 CONCLUSION. 

powers have neither objects presented to them, nor vigour 
left for enjoyments befitting their nature and desires. It is 
in vain to say to individuals that they err in acting thus : 
individuals are carried along in the great stream of social 
institutions and pursuits. The operative labourer is com- 
pelled to follow his routine of toil under pain of absolute 
starvation. The master-manufacturer, the merchant, the 
farmer, and the lawyer, are pursued by competitors so 
active, that if they relax in selfish ardour, they will be 
speedily plunged into ruin. If God has so constituted the 
human mind and body, and so arranged external nature, 
that all this is unavoidably necessary for man, then the 
Christian precepts are scarcely more suited to human na- 
ture and circumstances in this world, than the command to 
fly would be to the nature of the horse. If, on the other 
hand, man's nature and circumstances do in themselves 
admit of the Christian precepts being realised, it is obvious 
that a great revolution must take place in our notions, prin- 
ciples of action, practices, and social institutions, before this 
can be accomplished. That many Christian teachers be- 
lieve this improvement possible, and desire its execution, I 
cannot doubt ; but through want of knowledge of the con- 
stituent elements of human nature, and their rela f ions- 
through want, in short, of a philosophy of mind and of phy- 
sical nature — they have never been able to perceive what 
God has rendered man capable of attaining, — how it may be 
attained,— or on what principles the moral and physical 
government of the world in regard to man is conducted. 
Consequently, they have not acted generally on the idea of 
religion being a branch of an all-comprehending philosophy ; 
they have relied chiefly on inculcating the precepts of their 
Master, threatening future punishments for disobedience, 
and promising future rewards for observance, — without 
proving to society philosophically, not only that its institu- 
tions, practices, and principles, must be erected on loftier 
ground than they are at present before it can become truly 
Christian, — but that these improvements are actually within 
the compass of human nature, aided by revelation. Indi 
viduals in whom there is a strong aspiration after the reali- 
sation of the Christian state of society, but whose intellects 
cannot perceive any natural means by which it can be 
pwducea, take refuge in the regions of prophecy, and 



CONCLUSION. 331 

expect a miraculous reign of saints in the Millennium. 
How much more profitable would it be to study the philoso- 
phy of man's nature, which is obviously the work of God, 
and endeavour to introduce morality and happiness by the 
means appointed by Him in creation ! Supernatural agency 
has long since ceased to interfere with human affairs ; and 
whenever it shall operate again, we may presume that it 
will be neither assisted nor retarded by human opinions and 
speculations. 

We need only attend to the scenes daily presenting 
themselves in society, to obtain an irresistible conviction 
that many evil consequences result from the want of a true 
theory of human nature, and its relations. Every precep- 
tor in schools— every professor in colleges — every author, 
editor, and pamphleteer — every member of Parliament, 
councillor, and judge— has a set o£ notions of his own, 
which, in his mind, holds the place of a system of the philo- 
sophy of man ; and although he may not have methodised 
liis ideas, or even acknowledged them to himself as a theory, 
yet they constitute a standard to him by which he practi- 
cally judges of all questions in morals, politics, and religion : 
he advocates whatever views coincide with them, and con- 
demns all that differ from them, with as unhesitating a dog- 
matism as the most pertinacious theorist on earth. Each 
also despises the notions of his fellows, in so far as they 
differ from his own. In short, the human faculties too 
generally operate simply as instincts, exhibiting all the con- 
nection and uncertainty of mere feeling, unenlightened by 
perception of their own nature and objects. Hence public 
measures in general, whether relating to education, religion, 
trade, manufactures, the poor, criminal law, or any other 
subject linked with the dearest interests of society, instead 
of being treated as branches of one general system of econo- 
my, and adjusted on scientific principles each in harmony 
with all the rest, are supported or opposed on narrow and 
empirical grounds, and often call forth displays of ignorance, 
prejudice, selfishness, intolerance and bigotry, that greatly 
obstruct the progress of improvement. Indeed, any im- 
portant approach to unanimity, even among sensible and 
virtuous men, will bo impossible, so long as no standard of 
mental philosophy is admitted to guide individual feelings 
and perceptions. But the state of things now described 



832 CONCLUSION. 

could not exist, if education embraced a true system of hu- 
man natnue and its relations. 

If, then, the doctrine of the natural laws here expounded 
be true, it will, when matured, supply the deficiencies now 
pointed out. 

But here another question naturally presents itself — How 
are the views explained in this work, supposing them to 
contain some portion of truth, to be rendered practical ? 
Sound views of human nature and of the divine government 
come home to the feelings and understandings of men ; they 
perceive them to possess a substantive existence and reality, 
which rivet attention and command respect. If the doctrine 
unfolded in the present treatise be in any degree true, it is 
destined to operate proportionally on the character of 
clerical instruction. Individuals whose minds have em- 
braced the views which it contains, inform me that many 
sermons appear to them inconsistent in their different pro- 
positions, at variance with sound views of human nature, 
and so vague as to have little relation to practical life and 
conduct. They partake of the abstractedness of the scho- 
lastic philosophy. The first divine of comprehensive intel- 
lect and powerful moral feelings who shall take courage and 
introduce the natural laws into his discourses, and teach 
the people the works and institutions of the Creator, will 
reap a great reward in usefulness and pleasure. If this 
course shall, as heretofore, be neglected, the people, who 
are daily adding to their knowledge of philosophy and prac- 
tical science, will in a few years look down with disrespect 
on their clerical guides, and probably force them, by " pres- 
sure from without," to remodel the entire system of pulpit- 
instruction. 

The institutions and manners of society indicate the state 
of mind of the influential classes at the time when they 
prevail. The trial and burning of old women as witches, 
point out clearly the predominance of Destructiveness and 
Wonder over Intellect and Benevolence, in those who were 
guilty of such cruel absurdities. The practices of wager of 
battle, and ordeal by fire and water, indicate great activity 
of Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Veneration, in those 
who permitted them, combined with lamentable ignorance 
of the natural constitution of the world. In like manner, 
the enormous sums willingly expended in war, and the 



CONCLUSION. 333 

small sums grudgingly paid for public improvements, — the 
intense energy displayed in the pursuit of wealth, — and the 
general apathy evinced in the search after knowledge and 
virtue, — unequivocally proclaim activity of Combativeness, 
Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love 
of Approbation, with comparatively moderate vivacity of 
Benevolence, in the present generation. Before, therefore, 
the practices of mankind can be altered, the state of their 
minds must be changed. No error can be more gross than 
that of establishing institutions greatly in advance of the 
mental condition of the people. The rational method is, 
first to instruct the intellect, then to interest the sentiments, 
and, last of all, to form arrangements in harmony with these 
and resting on them as their basis. 

The views developed in the preceding chapters, if found- 
ed in nature, may be expected to lead, ultimately, to con- 
siderable changes in many of the customs and pursuits of 
society ; but to accomplish this effect, the principles them- 
selves must first be ascertained to be true, and then they 
must be sedulously taught. It appears to me that a long 
series of years will be necessary to bring even civilized 
nations into a condition to obey systematically the natural 
laws. 

The present work may be regarded as, in one sense, an 
introduction to an essay on education. If the views unfold- 
ed in it be in general sound, it will follow that education 
has scarcely yet commenced. If the Creator has bestowed 
on the body, on the mind, and on external nature, determi- 
nate constitutions, and has arranged them so as to act on 
each other, and to produce happiness or misery to man, ac- 
cording to certain definite principles, — and if this action 
goes on invariably, inflexibly, and irresistibly, whether men 
attend to it or not, — it is obvious that the very basis of 
useful knowledge must consist in an acquaintance with 
these natural arrangements, and that education will be 
valuable in the exact degree in which it communicates such 
information, and trains the faculties to act upon it. Read- 
ing, writing, and accounts, which make up the nstruction 
enjoyed by the lower orders, are merely means of acquiring 
knowledge, but do not constitute it. Greek, Latin, and ma- 
thematics, which are added in the education of the middle and 
upper classes, are still only means of obtaining information : 



334 CONCLUSION. 

so that, with the exception of the few who pursue physical 
science, society dedicates very little attention to the study 
of the natural laws. In following out the views now dis 
cussed, therefore, each individual, according as he becomes 
acquainted with the natural laws, ought to obey them, and 
to communicate his experience of their operations to 
others ; avoiding at the same time, all attempts at subvert 
mg, by violence, -established institutions, or outraging 
public sentiment by intemperate discussions. The doc- 
trine before unfolded, if true, authorizes us to predicate 
that the most successful method of ameliorating the condi- 
tion of mankind will be that which appeals most directly to 
their moral sentiments and intellect ; and I may add from 
experience and observation, that, in proportion as any indi- 
vidual becomes acquainted with the real constitution of the 
human mind, will his conviction of the efficacy of this 
method increase. 

The next step ought to be to teach those laws to the 
young. Their minds, not being occupied by prejudice, will 
recognise them as congenial to their own constitution ; the 
first generation that shall embrace them from infancy will 
proceed to modify the institutions of society into accord- 
ance with their dictates ; and in the course of ages they 
may at length be acknowledged as practically useful. A 
perception of the importance of the natural laws will lead 
to their observance, and this will be attended witfi an im- 
proved development of brain, thereby increasing the desire 
and capacity for obedience. All true theories have ulti- 
mately been adopted and influenced practice ; and I see 
no reason to fear that the present, if true, will prove an 
exception. The failure of all previous systems is the na- 
tural consequence of their being unfounded ; if this re- 
semble them, it will deserve, and assuredly will meet, a 
similar fate. 

Finally, if it be true that the natural laws must be obeyed 
as a preliminary condition to happiness in this world, and 
if virtue and happiness be inseparably dlied, the religious 
instructors of mankind may probably discover in the gene- 
ral and prevalent ignorance of these laws, one reason of the 
limited success which has hitherto attended their efforts to 
improve the condition of mankind ; and they may, perhaps, 
perceive it to be not inconsistent with their sacred office. 



CONCLUSION'. 335 

to instruct men in the natural institutions of the Creator, 
in addition to his revealed will, and to recommend obe- 
dience to both. They exercise so vast an influence over 
the best members of society, that their countenance may 
hasten, or their opposition retard, by a century, the gene- 
ral adoption of the natural laws as sound guides of human 
conduct 

If the excessive toil of the manufacturer be inconsistent 
with that elevation of the moral and intellectual faculties 
of man which is commanded by religion, and if the moral 
and physical welfare of mankind be not at variance with 
each other (which they cannot be), the institutions of so- 
ciety out of which the necessity for that labour arises, must, 
philosophically speaking, be pernicious to the interests of 
the state as a political body, and to the temporal welfare of 
the individuals who compose it ; and whenever we shall be 
in possession of a correct knowledge of the elements of hu- 
man nature, and the principles on which God has constitut- 
ed the world, the philosophical evidence that these practices 
are detrimental to our temporal welfare^ will be as clear as 
that of their inconsistency with our religious duties. Until, 
however, divines shall become acquainted with this relation 
between philosophy and religion, they will not possess ade- 
quate means of rendering their precepts practical in this 
world ; they will not carry the intellectual perceptions of 
their hearers fully along with them ; they will be incapable 
of controlling the force of the animal propensities ; and 
they will never lead society to the fulfilment of its highest 
destinies. At present, the animal propensities are fortified 
in the strong entrenchments of social institutions Acqui- 
sitiveness, for example, is protected and fostered by our ar- 
rangements for accumulating wealth ; a worldly spirit, by 
our constant struggle to obtain the means of subsistence ; 
pride and vanity, by our artificial distinctions of rank and 
fashion ; and Combativeness and Destructiveness, by our 
warlike professions. The divine assails the vices and inor- 
dinate passions of mankind by the denunciations of the 
Gospel ; but as long as society shall be animated by differ- 
ent principles, and maintain in vigour institutions whose 
spirit is diametrically opposite to its doctrines, so long will 
it be difficult for him to effect the realization of his precepts 
in practice. Yet it appears to me, that, by teaching man- 



336 CONCLUSION. 

kind the philosophy of their own nature and of the world 
in which they live — by proving to them the coincidence be- 
tween the dictates of this philosophy and Christian morality, 
and the inconsistency of their own institutions with both — 
they may be induced to modify the latter, and to entrench 
the moral powers ; and then the triumph of virtue and reli- 
gion will be more complete. Those who advocate the ex- 
clusive importance of spiritual religion for the improvement 
of mankind, appear to me to err in overlooking too much the 
necessity for complying with the natural conditions on which 
all improvement depends ; and I anticipate, that when schools 
and colleges shall expound the various branches of philoso- 
phy as portions of the institutions of the Creator — when the 
pulpit shall deal with the same principles, show their practi- 
cal application to man's duties and enjoyments, and add the 
sanctions of religion to enforce the observance of the natu- 
ral laws — and when the busy scenes of life shall be so ar- 
ranged as to become a field for the practice at once of our 
philosophy and of our religion — then will man assume his 
station as a rational being, and Christianity achieve her tri- 
umph 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. — Natural Laws. 
Text, p. 27. 

It is mentioned in the text that many philosophers have treated 
of the Laws of Nature. The following are examples : — 

Montesquieu introduces his Spirit of Laws with the following 
observations : — " Laws, in their most general signification, are 
the necessary relations derived from the nature of things. In 
this sense, all beings have their laws : the Deity has his laws ; 
the material world its laws ; the intelligences superior to man 
have their laws ; the beasts their laws ; man his laws. 

" Those who assert that a blind fatality produced the various 
effects we behold in this world, are guilty of a very great absur- 
dity ; for can any thing be more absurd than to pretend that a 
blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings 1 

44 There is, then, a primitive reason ; and laws are the relations 
which subsist between it and different beings, and the relations 
of these beings among themselves. 

"God is related to the universe as creator and preserver; the 
laws by which he has created all things are those by which he preserves 
them. He acts according to these rides, because he knows tnem ; he 
knows them because he has made them ; and he made them be- 
cause they are relative to his wisdom and power, &c. 

" Man, as a physical being, is, like other bodies, governed by inva 
riable laws." — Spirit of Laws, b. i. c. i. 

Justice Blackstone observes, that " Law in its most general 
and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action ; and is ap- 
plied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inan- 
imate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of 
gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature 
and of nations." — " Thus, when the Supreme Being formed the 
universe, and created matter out of nothing, he impressed certain 
principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and 
without which it would cease to be. When he put that matter 
into motion, he established certain laws of motion, to which all 
moveable bodies must conform." — " If we farther advance from 
mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, WE shall FIND 
them still governed bylaws; more numerous, indeed, but 
29 






338 APPENDIX. NATURAL LAWS. 

equally fixed and invariable. The whole progress of plants, {t^tn 
the seed to the root, and from thence to the seed again — the me- 
thod of animal nutrition, digestion, secretion, and all other 
branches of vital economy— are not left to chanct, or the will of 
the creature itself, but are performed in a wondrous involuntary 
manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the great Creator. 
This, then, is the general signification of law, a rule of action 
dictated by some superior being ; and, in those creatures that 
have neither power to think, nor to will, such laws must be ir va- 
riably obeyed, so long as the creature itself subsists ; for its ex 
istence depends on that obedience." — Blackstone's Commentaries 
on the Laws of England, vol. i. sect. 2. 

" The word to," says Mr. Erskine, " is frequently made use 
of, both by divines and philosophers, in a large acceptation, to ex 
press the settled method of God's providence, by which he preserves 
the order of the material world in such a manner, that nothing 
in it may deviate from that uniform course ivhich he has appoint .dfoi 
it. And as brute matter is merely passive, without the least de 
gree of choice upon its part, these laws are inviolably observ- 
ed in the material creation, every part of which continues to act, im- 
mutably, according to the rules that were from the beginning pt escrib- 
ed to it by infinite wisdom. Thus philosophers have giver the ap* 
pellation of law to that motion which incessantly pervades and 
agitates the universe, and is ever changing the form and si>bstance 
of things ; dissolving some, and raising others, as from their 
ashes, to fill up the void ; yet so, that amidst all the flu 3tu«itions by 
which particular things are effected, the universe is still preserv- 
ed without diminution. Thus also they speak of the laws of 
fluids, of gravitation, &c. and the word is used, in this sense, in 
several passages of the sacred writings ; in the book of Job, and in 
Proverbs viii. 29, where God is said to have given his law to the 
seas, that they should not pass his commandment." — Erskine's 
Institutes of the Law of Scotland, book i. tit. i. sect. 1. 

Cowper, in his Table Talk, after stating that vice disposes the 
mind to submit to the usurped command of tyranny, exclaims — 

" A dire effect, by one of Nature's laws, 
Unchangeably connected with its cause." 

Discussions about the Laws of Nature, rather than inquiries 
into them, were common in France at the time of the Revolu- 
tion ; and, having become associated, in imagination,- with the 
crimes and horrors of that period, they continue to be regarded 
by some individuals, as inconsistent with religion and morality. 
A coincidence between the views maintained in the preceding 
pages, and a passage in Volney, has been pointed out to me as an 
objection to the whole doctrine. Volney's words are the follow- 
ii»£ :— ** It is a law of nature, that water flows from an upper to a 



APPENDIX. NATURAL LAWS. 339 

*ower situation ; that it seeks its level ; that it is heavier than air ; 
that all bodies tend towards the earth ; that flame rises towards 
the sky ; that it destroys the organization of vegetables and ani 
mals ; that air is essential to the life of certain animals ; that, in 
certain cases, water suffocates and kills them ; that certain juices 
of plants, and certain minerals, attack their organs and destroy 
their life ; — and the same of a variety of facts. 

" Now, since these facts, and many similar ones, are -constant, 
regular, and immutable, they become so many real commands, to 
which man is bound to conform, under the express penalty of pun- 
ishment attached to their infraction, or well-being connected with 
their observance. So that if a man were to pretend to see clearly 
in the dark, or is regardless of the progress of the seasons, or 
the action of the elements ; if he pretends to exist under water 
without drowning, to handle fire without burning himself, to de- 
prive himself of air without suffocation, or to drink poison with- 
out destroying himself ; he receives for each infraction of the 
law of nature, a corporal punishment proportioned to his trans- 
gression. If, on the contrary, he observes these laws, and founds 
his practice on the precise and regular relation which they bear to 
him, he preserves his existence, and renders it as happy as it is 
capable of being rendered : and since all these laws, considered 
in relation to the human species, have in view only one common 
end, that of their preservation and their happiness, it has been 
agreed to assemble together the different ideas, and express them 
by a single word, and call them collectively by the name of the 
Law of Nature." — Volney's Law of Nature, 3d edit. p. 21, 24. 

I feel no embarrassment on account of this coincidence ; but 
remark, first, That various authors, quoted in the text and in this 
note, advocated the importance of the laws of nature, long before 
the French Revolution was heard of; secondly. That the existence 
of the laws of nature is as obvious to the understanding, as the 
existence of the external world, and of the human body itself, to 
the senses ; thirdly, That these laws, being inherent in creation, 
must have proceeded from the Deity ; fourthly, That if the Deity 
is powerful, just, and benevolent, they must harmonize with the 
constitution of man ; and, lastly, That if the laws of nature have 
been instituted by the Deity, and been framed in wise, benevo- 
lent, and just relationship to the human constitution, they must at 
all times form the highest and most important subjects of human 
investigation, and remain altogether unaffected by the errors, fol- 
lies, and crimes of those w r ho have endeavoured to expound 
them * just as religion continues holy, venerable, and uncontam- 
inated, notwithstanding the hypocrisy, wickedness, and inconsis- 
tency of individuals professing themselves her interpreters and 
fiiends. 

That the views of the natural laws themselves, advocated in 
this work, are diametrically opposite to the practical conduct ot 



340 APPENDIX. NATURAL LAWS. 

the French revolutionary ruffians, requires no demonstration. My 
fundamental principle is, that man can enjoy happiness on earth 
only by preserving his habitual conduct under the direction of the 
moral sentiments and intellect, and that this is the law of his na- 
ture. No doctrine can be more opposed than this to fraud, rob- 
bery, blasphemy, and murder. 

It may be urged, that all past speculations about the laws of 
nature have proved more imposing than useful ; and that, while 
the laws themselves afford materials for elevated declamation, 
they form no secure guides even to the learned, and much less to 
the illiterate in practical conduct. In answer, I would respect- 
fully repeat what has frequently been urged in the text, that be- 
fore we can discover the laws of nature applicable to man, we 
must know, first, the constitution of man himself ; secondly, the 
constitution of external nature ; and, thirdly, we must compare 
the two. But, until the discovery of Phrenology, the mental 
constitution of man was a matter of vague conjecture and endless 
debate ; and the connexion between his mental powers and his 
organized system was involved in the deepest obscurity. The 
brain, the most important organ of the body, had no ascertained 
functions. Before the introduction of this science, therefore, 
men were rather impressed with the unspeakable importance of 
the knowledge of the laws of nature, than extensively acquainted 
with those laws themselves ; and even the knowledge of the ex- 
ternal world actually possessed, could not, in many instances, be 
rendered available, on account of its relationship to the qualities 
of man being unascertained, and unascertainable so long as these 
qualities themselves were unknown. 

The adaptation of the constitution of man and animals to the 
circumstances in which they are placed, has been noticed by for 
mer writers. 

Lord Karnes observes, that " The wisdom of Providence is in 
no instance more conspicuous than in adjusting the constitution 
of man to his external circumstances."— -(Sketches, b. i. sk. 7.) ; 
and again, " The hand of God is nowhere more visible than in the 
nice adjustment of our internal frame to our situation in this 
world." — (B. iii. sk. 2, chap. i. sect, i.) 

Mr. Stewart says : " To examine the economy of nature in the 
phenomena of the lower animals, and to compare their instincts 
with the physical circumstances of their external situation, forms 
one of the finest speculations of Natural History ; and yet it is a 
speculation to which the attention of the natural historian has 
seldom been directed. Not only BuiFon, but Ray and Dcrham, 
havi passed it over slightly ; nor, indeed, do I knov of any one 
who has made it the object of a particular consideration but Lord 
Karnes, in a short Appendix to one of his Sketches." — Elements 
of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. iii. p. 263. 



JtPFENDIX. MUSCULAR LABOUR. 341 

Mr. Stewart also uses the following words : — " Numberless ex- 
amples show that Nature has done no more for man than was ne- 
cessary for his preservation, leaving him to make many acquisi- 
tions for himself, which she has imparted immediately to the 
brutes. 

" My own idea is, as I have said on a different occasion, that 
both instinct and experience are here concerned, and that the share 
which belongs to each in producing the result, can be ascertained 
Dy an appeal to facts alone." — Vol. iii. d. 338. 

The following is extracted from the Quarterly Review, vol.xxxi. 
p. 51 : — M Each must coincide in the desire of the Stoic to harmo- 
nize his conduct with the physical and moral order of the uni- 
verse. When to the knowledge of each, the Christian adds a 
deeper insight into the government of the Almighty, and learns 
that to act in concert with the system of the universe is to pro- 
mote his own eternal as well as his temporal happiness, his in- 
ducements are still stronger to employ the powers of self-govern 
ment with which he has been gifted, in conforming his feelings 
and actions to the plan of the great Architect." 



No. II. — Muscular Labour. 

[The reference on p. 37 to Appendix No. IT. is erroneous, and ought to 
be deleted. The subjoined note is referred to on p. 43, where " No. 
II." ought to be substituted for " No. III.] 

So little ought the necessity for bodily exertion to be regarded 
as a curse, that in reality (as Dr. Thomas Brown has eloquently 
illustrated in his 66th lecture) there is no human desire more 
powerful and universal than the desire of action, and none the de 
nial of whose gratification is productive of greater uneasiness. 

" To be happy," says Dr. B., M it is necessary that we be occu- 
pied ; and, without our thinking of the happiness which results 
from it, nature has given us a constant desire of occupation. We 
must exert our limbs, or we must exert our thought ; and when 
we exert neither, we feel that languor of which we did not think 
before, but which, when it is felt, convinces us how admirably 
our desire of action is adapted for the prevention of this very evil, 
of which we had not thought ; as our appetites of hunger and 
thirst are given to us for the preservation of health, of which we 
think as little during the indulgence of our appetites, as we think 
during our occupation, of the languor which would overwhelm us 
if wholly unoccupied. How wretched would be the boy, if he 
were to be forced to lie, even on the softest couch, during a whole 
day, while he heard at intervals, the gay voices of his playmates 
without, and could distinguish, by these very sounds, the parti 
cular pastimes in which they were engaged ! How wretched, in 
29* 



342 APPENDIX. MUSCULAR LABOUR. 

these circumstances, is man himself ; and what fretfulness do we 
perceive even on brows of more deliberate thought — on, brows 
too, perhaps, that, in other circumstances, are seldom overcast, 
— if a few successive days of wet and boisterous weather have 
rendered all escape into the open air, and the exercises which 
this escape would afford, impossible ! 

" Without the knowledge of the pleasure that is thus felt in 
mere exertion, it would not be easy for us to look with satisfac 
tion on the scene of human toil around us — which assumes in- 
stantly a different aspect when we consider this happy principle 
of our mental constitution. Though we are apt to think of those 
who are labouring for others, as if they were not labouring for 
themselves also, — and though unquestionably from our natural 
love of freedom, any task which is imposed cannot be as agreeable 
as an occupation spontaneously chosen, — we yet must not think 
that the labour itself is necessarily an evil, from which it would 
be a happiness for man to be freed. Nature has not dealt so 
hardly with the great multitude ; in comparison with whom the 
smaller number, for whose accommodation she seems to have 

formed a more sumptuous provision, are truly insignificant 

How different would the busy scene of the world appear, if we 
could conceive that no pleasure attended the occupations to 
which so great a majority of our race would then seem to be con- 
demned, almost like slaves that are fettered to the very instru 
ments of their daily task ! How different from that scene, in 
which, though we perceive many labouring and a few at rest, we 
perceive in the labourer a pleasure of occupation, which those 
who rest, would often be happy to purchase from him, and which 
they do sometimes endeavour to purchase, by the same means by 
which he has acquired it; by exercises as violent and unremitted 
as his, and which have the distinction only of being of less ad- 
vantage to the world than those toils by which he at once pro- 
motes his own happiness, and contributes to the accommodation 
of others ! It is pleasing thus to perceive a source of enjoyment 
in the very circumstance which might seem most hostile to hap- 
piness ; to perceive in the labour itself, of which the necessity is 
imposed on man, a consolation for the loss of that verv freedom 
which it constrains. — Lectures on the Philosophy oj the Human 
Mind, vol. uL p. 409-412. 



APPENDIX. PROGRESS OF PHRENOLOGY. 343 

No. III. — Progress of Phrenology. 

[Erroneously referred to on p. 43. See note on page 341.] 

Text, p. 94. 

On its first introduction into Britain, in 1815, Phrenology was 
received by the press and the public with an unanimous shout of 
derision. The Edinburgh Review took the leading part i). the 
work of abuse, boldly denouncing it as "trash," "despicable 
trumpery," " a collection of mere absurdities, without truth, con 
nexion, or consistency," and " a piece of thorough quackery from 
beginning to end." To Phrenology, the following sentence, ap 
plied by Dr. Chalmers to the philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, is 
equally applicable : — " Authority scowled upon it, and taste was 
disgusted by it, and fashion was ashamed of it, and all the beau- 
teous speculation of former days was cruelly broken up by this 
new announcement of the better philosophy, and scattered like 
the fragments of an aerial vision, over which the past generations 
of the world had been slumbering their profound and their pleas- 
ing reverie." — (Astronom. Discourses, ii. 55.) For a few years, 
the progress of Phrenology was completely stopped ; but Dr. 
Spurzheim having published a decisive reply to the reviewer, and 
in his lectures convinced many that the science had been most 
unfairly dealt with, the study was eagerly taken up in Edinburgh 
and other parts of Britain. The Phrenological Society, projected 
by the Rev. David Welsh, now Professor of Church History in 
the University of Edinburgh, was instituted in that city on the 
22d of February 1820 ; and, in 1823, several of its members com- 
menced the publication of a quarterly periodical, " The Phreno- 
logical Journal and Miscellany," which has now (July 1835) ex- 
tended to forty-four numbers, or nearly nine octavo volumes. In 
1824, the Society printed a volume of Transactions. The effect 
of these, and other phrenological publications, — and of the lec- 
tures of various phrenologists in different parts of the kingdom, 
particularly those of Dr. Spurzheim himself — has been to diffuse 
the science far more rapidly than even its most sanguine advo- 
cates ventured fifteen years ago to anticipate. In France, a 
Phrenological Journal has for several years been published, under 
the superintendence of the Phrenological Society of Paris ; and, 
in October 1833, there appeared at Boston, U. S., the first num- 
ber of a periodical entitled "Annals of Phrenology," conducted 
by members of the Boston Phrenological Society, and a volume 
of which is now complete. In Britain, Phrenology has" been from 
time to time attacked by various writers ; but the effect has al- 
ways been a decided acceleration of its progress— the defence! 



344 APPENDIX. PROGRESS OF PHRENOLOGY, 

of phrenologists having apparently been considered triumphant 
by the public. 

The following is a list of places in which so far as I am aware, 
Phrenological Societies have been formed : — ~~ 

Scotland. — 1820 ; Edinburgh. — 1826 ; Glasgow, Dundee, 
Kilmarnock— 1828 ; Dunfermline.— 1833 ; Greenock.— 1834 ; 
Alyth, Stirling. 

England.— 1824 ; London, Wakefield, Exeter.— 1827 ; Hull. 
—1829; Liverpool.— 1830 ; Manchester.— 1832 ; Portsmouth.— 
1834 ; Warwick. 

Ireland.— 1826 ; Belfast.— 1829 ; Dublin. 

France. — 1831 ; Paris. 

India.— 1825 ; Calcutta. 

United States.— 1824 ; Philadelphia.— 1826 ; Washington. 
— 1832 ; Boston. — 1834 ; Hingham, Nantucket, Brunswick, An- 
dover, Amherst, Hanover, Reading, Leicester, Worcester, Pro- 
vidence, Hartford, Oneida. 

Other Phrenological Societies, of which I have not heard, have 
probably been instituted elsewhere ; and it is understood that 
some of those mentioned in the foregoing list are at present in a 
dormant condition 

Among the members of the medical profession, Phrenology 
has many talented defenders and admirers. Professor Elliotson 
of London, declares that "Gall has the immortal honour of having 
discovered particular parts of the brain to be the seat of different 
faculties, sentiments, and propensities." — ( Transl. of Blumew 
bach's Physiology, 4th ed. p. 204.) Mr. Abernethy says, " I rea 
dily acknowledge my inability to offer any rational objections to 
Gall and Spurzheim's System of Phrenology, as affording a satis- 
factory explanation of the motives of human actions."— (Reflec- 
tions on Gall and Spurzheim's System, <$-c. p. 48.) — Dr. Barlow, 
Physician to the Bath United Hospital and Infirmary, alludes to 
Phrenology as a science in which he "has no hesitation to avow 
his firm belief ; and which, justly estimated, has more power of 
contributing to the welfare and happiness of mankind, than any 
other with which we are acquainted." — (Cyclop, of Pract. Med. 
art. Education, Physical.) Dr. Conolly, lately one of the Medi- 
cal Professors in the London University, and now r President of 
the Phrenological Society of Warwick, says, " I can see nothing 
which merits the praise of being philosophical in the real or af 
fected contempt professed by so many anatomists and physiolo- 
gists," for the science of Phrenology. — (On the Indications of In- 
sanity, p. 135.) Dr. Mackintosh says, "Although I must confess 
that I have had neither time nor opportunity to examine the sys- 
tem of those distinguished anatomists and physiologists, Gall and 
Spurzheim, with that care and attention which the importance of 
the subject demands, and whic'. might enable me to give a decid- 
ed opinion respecting the truth of all its parts, yet experience and 



APPENDIX. — PROGRESS OF PHRENOLOGY. 345 

•bsoivation oblige me to state, that much of their doctrines ap 
pears to be true, and that science owes a great deal to the labours 
of the gentlemen who have been engaged in phrenological inqui- 
ry." — (Principles of Pathology, 3d edit. ii. 4.) " The science," 
says Mr. Macnish, " is entirely one of observation ; by that it 
must stand or fall, and by that alone ought it to be tested. The 
phrenological system appears to me the only one capable of af- 
fording a rational and easy explanation of the phenomena of 
mind. It is impossible to account for dreaming, idiocy, spectral 
illusions, monomania, and partial genius in any other way. For 
these reasons, and for the much stronger one, that having studied 
the science for several years with a mind rather hostile than 
otherwise to its doctrines, and found that nature invariably vin 
dicated their truth, I could come to no other conclusion than that 
of adopting them as a matter of belief, and employing them for 
the explanation of phenomena which they alone seem calculated 
to elucidate satisfactorily. The system of Gall is gaining ground 
rapidly among scientific men, both in Europe and America. 
Some of the ablest physiologists in both quarters of the globe 
have admitted its accordance with nature ; and, at this moment, 
it boasts a greater number of proselytes than at any previous pe- 
riod of its career. The prejudices still existing against it result 
from ignorance of its real character. As people get better ac- 
quainted with the science, and the formidable evidence by which 
it is supported, they will think differently." — (Philos. of Sleep'. 
2ded. pref.) Similar passages might be quoted from other es- 
teemed medical writers ; but it is sufficient to add, that Andral, 
one of the highest medical authorities in Europe, was recently 
President of the Phrenological Society of Paris ; that the cele- 
brated Broussais expounds and defends the science in his lec- 
tures ; that the Medico-Chirurgical Review, which is unques- 
tionably at the head of the British medical periodicals, has for 
many years adopted Phrenology as founded in nature ; and that a 
conviction of the truth and importance of the science is daily 
forcing itself upon many, who, before making themselves ac- 
quainted with it, were among its bitter opponents. The sim- 
plicity and practical character of the phrenological philosophy 
nave induced not a few to doubt the possibility of its being found- 
ed on physiological error. If, as has been well remarked, the 
truth and beauty of Gall and Spurzheim's philosophical opinions 
be admitted, one of two conclusions is inevitable : We must 
either grant the soundness of the organology from which those 
opinions sprung, or ascribe to the individuals who first taught 
them an amount of knowledge and talent which they would have 
blushed to hear attributed to them, and their possession of which 
is far more incredible than the entire body of phrenological sci 
ence. 



346 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

No. IV.— Organic Laws. 
Text, p. 105. 

On the subject of the sufferings of women in childbed, the 
following authorities may be referred to : — 

" One thing," says Mr. Alison, " is very remarkable, and occurs 
in most- cases of concealment and childmurder, viz. the strength 
and capability for exertion evinced by women "in the inferior 
ranks shortly after childbirth, — appearances so totally different 
from those exhibited in the higher orders, that, to persons ac- 
quainted only with cases among the latter, they would appear 
incredible. In the case just mentioned (that of Catharine Butler 
or Anderson, at Aberdeen, in spring 1829), the mother, two or 
three days after her delivery, walked from Inverury to Huntly, a 
distance of twenty-eight miles, in a single day, with her child on 
her back. Similar occurrences daily are proved in cases of this 
description. It is not unusual to find women engaged in reaping 
retire to a little distance, effect their delivery by themselves, 
return to their fellow-labourers, and go on with their work during 
the remainder of the day, without any other change of appear- 
ance but looking a little paler and thinner. Such a fact occurred 
in the case of Jean Smith, Ayr, spring 1824. Again, in the 
case of Ann Macdougall, Aberdeen, spring 1823, it appeared that 
the pannel, who was sleeping in bed with two other servants, 
rose, was delivered, and returned to bed, without any of them 
being conscious of what had occurred. Instances have even 
occurred in which women have walked six and eight miles on the 
very day of their delivery, without any sensible inconvenience. 
Many respectable medical practitioners, judging from what they 
have observed among the higher ranks, would pronounce such 
facts impossible : but they occur so frequently among the labour- 
ing classes as to form a point worthy of knowledge in criminal 
jurisprudence ; and to render perfectly credible what is said of 
the female American Indians, that they fall behind for a little, on 
their journeys through the forests, deliver themselves, and shortly 
make up to their husbands, and continue their journey with their 
offspring on their back." — Alison's Principles of the Criminal Law 
of Scotland j pp. 161-162. 

Mr. Lawrence observes, that " the very easy labours of Ne- 
gresses, native Americans, and other women in the savage state, 
have been often noticed by travellers. This point is not explica- 
ble by any prerogative of physical formation ; for the pervis is 
rather smaller in these dark-coloured races than in the European 
and other white people. Simple diet, constant and laborious ex- 
ertion, give to these children of nature a hardiness of constitu 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 347 

tion, and exempt them from most of the ills which afflict the in- 
dolent and luxurious females of civilized societies. In the latter, 
however, the hard-working women of the lower classes in the 
country often suffer as little from childbirth as those of any other 
race. Analogous differences, from the like causes, may be seen 
in the animal kingdom. Cows kept in towns, and other animals 
deprived of their healthful exercise, and accustomed to unnatural 
food and habits, often have difficult labours, and suffer much in 
parturition." — Lawrence's Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and 
the Natural History of Man. 1822. Vol. ii. p. 190. 

Among the Araucanian Indians of South America, "a mother, 
immediately on her delivery, takes her child, and going down to 
the nearest stream of water, washes herself and it, and returns 
to the usual labours of her station." — Stevenson's Twenty Years' 
Residence in South America. Vol. i. p. 9. 



No. V. — Hereditary Descent of National Peculiarities 
Text, p. 148. 

National features descend unchanged through many centuries, 
. as is shown by Dr.W. C. Edwards, in his work on " The Physio- 
logical Characters of Races of Mankind considered in their re- 
lations to History," published at Paris in 1829. An excellent ab- 
stract of this work, by Dr. William Gregory, will be found in the 
Phrenological Journal, vol. ix. p. 97. Dr. Edwards has adduced 
as an example the Jews. " In the first place, Jews in all coun- 
tries resemble each other, and differ from the people among 
whom they live. Secondly, at distant periods, they had the same 
external characters. In the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, 
this painter, who was an excellent naturalist and close observer, 
has painted faces which might be portraits of living Jews. This 
was 300 years ago ; but we have evidence, that 3000 years ago 
the Jews had the same characters. 

" In the copy of the paintings adorning the tomb of an Egyp- 
tian king, exhibited in London about ten years ago, there are 
representations of four different races in procession : 1st, The 
natives, very numerous, of a dark brown tint, but without the 
woolly hair of the Negro ; 2d, Negroes, with the black skin, thick 
lips, and woolly hair of that race ; 3c?, Persians ; and, 4th, Jews, 
distinguished, says Belzoni, by their complexion and physiog- 
nomy. Dr. Edwards says, ' I had seen, on the previous day, 
Jews in the streets of London ; I thought that I now saw their 
portraits.' " 



348 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

No. VI. — Hereditary Complexion. 

Text, p. 155. 

Mr. W. B. Stevenson, in his " Narrative of Twenty Years* 
Residence in South America," vol. i. p. 286, says that he has 
,4 always remarked, that in cases where parents are of different 
castes, the child receives more of the colour of the father, than 
of the mother." He made extensive observations during a long 
residence in Lima ; a place, he remarks, than which there cannot 
be any more favourable for an examination of the influence of 
" the configuration of the human face, or of its colour, on the in- 
tellectual faculties." He gives the following Table, showing the 
mixture of the different castes, under their common or distin- 
guishing names. But " this table," says he, " which I have en- 
deavoured to make as correct as possible from personal observa- 
tion, must be considered as general, and not including particular 
cases " 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 



349 



Father. 


Mother. 


Children 


Colour. 


European, 
Creole, 


European, 
Creole, 


Creole, 
Creole, 


White. 
White. 


White, 


Indian, 


Mestiso, 


.6 White, 2 Indian— Fair. 


Indian, 


White, 


Mestiso, 


A White, | Indian. 


White, 


Mestiso, 


Creole, 


White, — often very fair. 


Mestiso, 


White, 


Creole, 


White — but rather sallow. 


Mestiso, 


Mestiso, 


Creole, 


Sallow — often light hair. 


White, 
Negro, 
White, 
Mulatto, 


Negro, 
White, 
Mulatto, 

White, 


Mulatto, 
Zambo, 
Quarteron, 
Mulatto, 


Z White,!. Negro — often fair. 
-| White ,i-Negro — dark cop- 
|White,f Negro— Fair.EP er ' 
i.White,3.Negro— Tawny. 


White, 

Quateron, 

White, 


Quateron, 

White, 

Quinteron, 


Quinteron. 
Quarteron, 
Creole, 


X White, -i-Negro — very fair. 
-|White,-f Negro— Tawny. 
White — light eyes, fair hair. 


Negro, 
Indian, 


Indian, 
Negro, 


Chino, 
Chino, 


ANegro, J. Indian. 
^-Negro,-^ Indian 
-§-Negro,-| White 
i-Negro, i. White. 


Negro, 
Mulatto, 


Mulatto, 
Negro, 


Zarabo, 
Zambo, 


Negro, 

Zarabo, 

Negro, 

Chino, 

Negro, 


Zambo, 
Negro, 
Chino, | 
Negro, i 

Negro, 


Zambo, 
Zambo, 
Zambo- > 

Chino, i 
Zambo- > 

Chino, $ 
Negro, 


1A Negro, l White— Dark. 
XNegro,A White. 

15 Negro, 1 Indian. 

16 16 

Z Negro, X Indian. 
8 & 8 



No. VII.— Hereditary Transmission of Qualities 

Text, p. 158. 

Fortified by the observations made at the commencement ot 
the second section of Chapter V., I venture to cite some addi- 
tional authorities, and to record some farther facts, observed by 
myself or communicated by persons on whose accuracy reliance 
30 



350 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAW*. 

may be placed, in support of the doctrine of the transmission of 
qualities by hereditary descent. 

" The advice which I am now about to give, is indeed no other 
than what has been given by those who have undertaken this argu- 
ment before me. You will ask me, what is that ? 'Tis this, that 
no man keeps company with his wife for issue sake, but when he 
is sober — as not having before either drunk any wine, or, at least, 
not to such a quantity as to distemper him ; for they usually prove 
wine-bibbers and drunkards whose parents begot them when they 
were drunk ; wherefore Diogenes said to a stripling somewhat 
crack-brained and half-witted, Surely, young man, thy father be- 
got thee when he was drunk." — Plutarch's Morals, translation 
published at London, 1718, vol. i. p. 2. 

It is remarked by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, that 
" if a drunken man gets a child, it will never, likely, have a good 
brain." 

The passion for intoxicating liquors is sometimes hereditary. 
Dr. Gall mentions a Russian family, in which the father and grand- 
father fell victims in early life to their propensities to drunken- 
ness. The son, although he foresaw the consequences of this per- 
nicious habit, continued to abandon himself to it, in spite of every 
resolution to the contrary ; and the grandson, who was onlv five 
years of age when Dr. Gall wrote, displayed even then a most de- 
cided inclination for spirituous liquors. — Sur les Fonctions du Cer~ 
veau, i. 410. As these facts can hardly be explained by referring 
to the influence of example, it follows that a peculiar state of the 
organization, giveng rise to the mental peculiarity, was in this 
case transmitted from one generation to another. In point of 
fact, Dr. Caldwell has shown much reason for considering the ir- 
resistible desire for intoxicating liquors as a symptom of cerebral 
disease, having its special seat probably in the organs of Alimen 
tiveness. As long as this disease exists, the desire is strongly 
felt and every appeal to the understanding of the repentant and un- 
happy patient is in vain. " Am I asked," says Dr. Caldwell, 
" how drunkenness then is to be cured, and the tormenting pro- 
pensity which leads to it eradicated ? I answer, by the same 
means which are found successful in the treatment of other forms 
of insanity, where the cerebral excitement is preternatu rally high. 
These are, seclusion and tranquillity, bleeding, puking, purging, 
cold water, and low diet. In this prescription I am serious ; and 
if it be opportunely adopted and resolutely persevered in, I freely 

peril my reputation on its success If interrogated on the sub 

ject, the resident physician of the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum will 
state that he finds, in the institution he superintends, no difficulty 
in curing mania a potu by the treatment here directed." — Tran- 
sylvania Journal of Medicine for July, August, and September 
1832, p. 332-3. See also Phren. Journ. vol. viii. p. 624. Dr 
Caldwell admits, however, that it is only recent and acute cases 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 351 

which can be speedily cured ; those of long standing are much 
less tractable, and occasionally the disease may be found incur- 
able. He thinks very justly, that nothing would tend more to 
diminish the prevalence of habitual drunkenness, than to have it 
deemed and proclaimed a form of madness, and dealt with accord- 
ingly. Hospitals erected for the reception of drunkards, and 
authority given to confine them there, would be among the most 
important institutions that could be established, and would effect 
an immense saving of life, health, property, and reputation. In 
regard to the hereditary transmission of this miserable tendency, 
Dr. Caldwell observes , — " Every constitutional quality, whe- 
ther good or bad, may descend, by inheritance, from parent to 
child. And a long continued habit of drunkenness becomes as 
essentially constitutional, as a predisposition to gout or pulmo- 
nary consumption. This increases, in a manifold degree, the re- 
sponsibility of parents in relation to temperance. By habits ot 
intemperance, they not only degrade and ruin themselves, but trans 
mit the elements of like degradation and ruin to their posterity. 
This is no visionary conjecture, the fruit of a favourite and long 
cherished theory. It is a settled belief resulting from observa- 
tion—an inference derived from innumerable facts. In hundreds 
and thousands of instances, parents, having had children born to 
them while their habits were temperate, have become afterward 
intemperate, and had other children subsequently born. In such 
cases, it is a matter of notoriety, that the younger children have 
become addicted to the practice of intoxication much more fre- 
quently than the elder — in the proportion of five to one. Let me 
not be told that this is owing to the younger children being neg- 
lected, and having corrupt and seducing examples constantly 
before them. The same neglects and profligate examples have 
been extended to all ; yet all have not been equally injured by 
them. The children of the earlier births have escaped, while 
those of the subsequent ones have suffered. The reason is plain. 
The latter children had a deeper animal taint than the former*" — • 
Transylvania Jour. p. 341-2. 

The following cases are recorded in the Phrenological Journal ; 
" I now proceed to give some facts strongly illustrative of the 
doctrine, that the faculties which predominate in power and acti- 
vity in the parents, when the organic existence of the child com- 
mences, determine its future mental dispositions. This is a 
doctrine to which, from its great practical importance, I would 
beg leave to call your serious attention. It was remarked by the 
celebrated Esquirol, 'that the children whose existence dated 
from the horrors of the first French Revolution, turned out to be 
weak, nervous, and irritable in mmd, extremely susceptible of 
impressions, and liable to be thrown by the least extraordinary 
excitement into absolute insanity.' Sometimes, too, family 
calamities produce serious effects upon the offspring. A very 



352 APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 

intelligent and respectable mother, upon hearing this principle ex 
pounded, remarked that there was a very wide difference in the 
intellectual and moral development between one of her children 
and the others ; and accounted for this difference by the fact, that, 
during pregnancy, she received intelligence that the crew of the 
ship on board of which was her son, had mutinied, — that when 
the ship arrived in the West Indies, some of the mutineers, and 
also her son, had been put in irons, — and that they were all to be 
sent home for trial. This intelligence acted so strongly upon her, 
that she suffered a temporary alienation of judgment. The re- 
port turned out to be erroneous, but this did not avert the conse- 
quences of the agitated state of the mother's feelings upon the 
daughter she afterward gave birth to. That .daughter is now a 
woman, but she is and will continue to be a being of impulses, 
incapable of reflection, and in other respects greatly inferior to 
her sisters. 

" The following is a melancholy instance of the operation of 
this principle, which was communicated to me by a respectable 
medical practitioner, and which I have since fouud from inquiries 
in the neighbourhood, and from seeing the subject of it, to be sub 
stantially correct. In the summer of 1827, the practitioner al- 
luded to was called upon to visit professionally a young woman 
in the immediate neighbourhood, who was safely delivered of a 
male child. As the parties appeared to be respectable, he made 
some inquiries regarding the absence of the child's father ; when 
the old woman told him that her daughter was still unmarried ; 
that the child's father belonged to a regiment then in Ireland ; 
that last autumn he had obtained leave of absence to visit his re 
lations in this part of the country ; and that on the eve of his 
departure to join his regiment, an entertainment was given, at 
which her daughter attended : during the whole evening, she and 
the soldier danced and sang together ; when heated by the toddy 
and the dance, they left the cottage, and after the lapse of an 
hour were found together in a glen, in a state of utter insen 
sibility, from the effects of their former festivity ; and the con 
sequence of this interview was the birth of an idiot. He is no 1 * 
nearly six years of age, and his mother does not believe that he 
is able to recognise either herself or any other individual. He 
is quite incapable of making signs, whereby his wants can be 
made known — with this exception, that when hungry he gives a 
wild shriek. This is a case upon which it would be painful to 
dwell ; and I shall only remark, that the parents are both intelli- 
gent, and that the fatal result cannot be otherwise accounted for 
than by the almost total prostration or eclipse of the intellect of 
both parties from intoxication." — Phren. Jour vol. viii. p. 471. 

Shakspeare seems to recognise the law of the transmission Ot 
temporary mental qualities, so much insisted on in the text : — 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAW3. 353 

" Come on, ye cowards ; ye were got in fear, 
Though ye were born in Rome." 

Coriolanus, Act 1 Sc. 6. 

A gentleman, who has paid much attention to the rearing of 
norses, informed me, that the male race-horse, when excited, but 
not exhausted, by running, has been found by experience to be 
in the most favourable condition for transmitting swiftness and 
vivacity to his offspring. Another gentleman stated, that he was 
himself present when the pale gray colour of a male horse was 
objected to ; that the groom thereupon presented before the eyes 
of the male another female from the stable, of a very particular 
but pleasing variety of colours, asserting that the latter would 
determine the complexion of the offspring ; and that in point of 
fact it did so. The experiment was tried in the case of a second 
female, and the result was so completely the same, that the two 
young horses, in point of colour, could scarcely be distinguished 
although their spots were extremely uncommon. The account 
of Laban and the peeled rods laid before the cattle to produce 
spotted calves, is an example of the same kind. 

The subjoined observations are extracted from " Outlines of 
the Veterinary Art, by Delabere Blaine," 3d edition, London, 
1826, p. 327 : — " That the organization of the mare, her qualities, 
and even her diseases, are imprinted on her offspring, is hardly 
to be wondered at ; but how are we to account for the effects 
which even her imagination has over the young within ? and that 
such is the case, we have innumerable proofs. As early as the 
patriarchal time, the fact was known and acted on. These an- 
omalies in the gestation of the horse are less frequent than in the 
more closely domesticated animals, as dogs ; yet there are not 
wanting instances of these mental impressions sinking deeply 
into the mind of the mare also, and being called into recollection 
and action in every future pregnancy. Lord Morton bred from 
a male quagga and a chestnut mare. The mare was afterward 
bred from by a black Arabian horse ; but still the progeny ex- 
hibited, in colour and mane, a striking resemblance to the quagga. 
D. Giles, Esq. had a sow of the black and white kind, which was 
bred from by a boar of the wild breed, of a deep chestnut colour: 
the pigs produced by this intercourse were duly mixed, the 
colour of the boar being in some very predominant. The sow 
was afterward bred from by two of Mr. Western's boars, and in 
both instances chestnut marks were prevalent in the latter, 
which in other instances had never presented any appearance of 
the kind. — Phil. Trans. 1821. See many other instances de- 
tailed in the Canine Pathology, 3d edition, p. 94." 

The same writer gives some interesting details, to show the 
necessity for attending to the qualities of both parents in the 
breeding 01 horses. u The general characteristic form of the 
3Q* 



354 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

animal," says he, " is arbitrarily settled by nature, but the indi- 
vidualities of character in the separate organs is divided between 
the parents m nearly equal proportions.* This is exemplified in 
the breed which arises from the intermixture of the blood with 
the cart breed, where the extreme difference in form and charac- 
ter is nicely blended, yet the peculiarities of each remain dis- 
tinguishable, f This proves the great error committed by the 
generality of farmers and small breeders, who, careless about 
the dam, breed from any mare they happen to possess or can 
procure, though it may even be unfitted for work by disease or 
age ; and expect, provided they gain a leap from a tolerable 
stallion, to procure a valuable progeny. But it is in vain to hope 
for good form and useful qualities under such circumstances ; for 
it will be generally found that the properties of each parent are 
equally proportioned in the progeny, — and this fact is so well 
known to judicious breeders that they select both sire and dam 
with equal care. This dependence on the law by which the dis- 
tribution of form and qualities is equally dependent on both 
parents, leads to the correction of defects in particular breeds, 
by selecting one parent eminent for a form or quality for which 
the other is as notoriously defective. Should a mare, otherwise 
valuable, present a low heavy forehand beyond even that which 
is her sexual characteristic, by choosing her a male more than 
usually thin and elevated in his crest, the defect will be reme- 
died; whereas, if this be not attended to, whatever other proper- 
ties each may possess, a serious defect is propagated and 
increased, and the produce can be of little value. It is also by a 
judicious attention to these circumstances that particular breeds 
are preserved with their original integrity, or new varieties in- 
troduced." — " It is by the choice of such parents as have the 
specified and definite form in the greatest perfection that we are 
enabled in the progeny to perpetuate the same, and by future 
selections to improve it. The merits and defects of each parent 
should be previously subjected to careful examination ; and it is 
only by a judicious balancing of the one against the other that 

* " It is by no means intended here to deny that the external charac- 
ters of some breeds are not principally derived from the male, and of 
others from the female ; but these anomalies, for which we cannot ac- 
count, do not tend to alter the general similitude observed towards both 
parents. In the multiparous animals, it is often observed that the in- 
fluence of one parent preponderates in a part of the progeny, and of 
the other in another part of it. Thus it happens that, when a pointer 
and setter breed together, it is not unusual to find part of the whelps 
almost perfect pointers, and the remainder as nearly true setters." 

f" The hybrid mule divides in equal proportions the sequine and as- 
sinine characters : at the same time it must be allowed that the ninny, 
or produce of the stallion and ass, is more allied to the horse than tha 
mule, or progeny from the male ass and mare " 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 355 

perfect success is to be expected. It is thus that our racers havo 
outstripped all competitors ; it is thus that a Russell, a Coke, a 
Bakewell, and an Ellman, have raised our ruminants to their 
present state ; and it is by the same art that a Meynell, a Rivers, 
or a Topham, have produced unrivalled dogs. Our power over 
the animal form and qualities, by the selection of parents, and 
subjecting their progeny to particular nurture, careful domesti- 
cation, restraint and discipline, is truly surprising. The 
shepherd's dog is in some breeds born with a short tail ; thus the 
very base of the machine, that which of ail the parts is the least 
subjected to alteration by any physical or moral agency, the 
bones, even becomes subjected to our caprice. The Hereford 
ox can be bred to a white face, or a' half white face, and the 
length of the horns of others can be ensured to an inch. The 
Spittalfields weavers assert, that they can ensure almost to a 
certainty in the Marlborough breed of spaniels, which nourishes 
among them, any given quantity of colour, length of coat and tex- 
ture of it, and regulate its disposition to curl or remain straight. 
The colour of the game-cock is arbitrarily imposed by the 
handler and feeder ; and the experienced pigeon-fancier can 
breed to a feather. It should not be lost sight of, that qualities, 
as well mental as personal, are also to be cultivated and handed 
down in the breed. Many qualities may be considered as de- 
pendent on the organization ; such are hardihood, particular 
excellence in one pace, &c. These, it may be expected, a priori, 
might be perpetuated ; and we are not surprised at a son of 
Eclipse or Matchem having speed in his gallop, or the produce 
of a Norfolk trotter excelling in that pace ; but it is not equally 
taken into the account that temper, courage, docility, and patience 
under restraint, are equally handed down in hereditary descent 
as the peculiarities of form." — P 321-323. 

Mr. Blaine expresses himself not hostile to in-and-in breeding; 
in defence of which he adduces several arguments and authori- 
ties, as well as hi« own experience, and says he " could quote 
innumerable other authorities" to the same effect. " But can- 
dour," he adds, " obliges me also to own, that there exists a large 
number of able antagonists to it also. My limits only allow me 
to add, that many practical breeders who are averse to breeding 
in succession from near relationship by blood, are favourable 
to it in a remote degree, which is particularly the case with some 
rearers of game fowls, who seek the intercourse of a third re- 
move, which they call a ' nick.'' From these conflicting testimo- 
nies, the matter will, with many be considered as problematical. 
With me, the only arguments against it which it appears cannot 
be satisfactorily answered are, that as hereditary diseases in some 
breeds are considerable, by this mode of breeding they would be 
perpetuated, and probably increased; and likewise, that when 



356 APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAW*. 

breeding by relationship is a settled practice, accidental defects 
are too apt to be passed over unobserved." — P. 325. 

Mr. Blaine notices also a very important circumstance in rela- 
tion to hereditary transmission — what is popularly denominated 
breeding back ; that is to say, the appearance in the second or third 
generation, of qualities of the progenitors, not observable in the 
first generation. " It is observed," he says, " that the progeny of 
the horse, of man, and of most domestic animals, shall bear a 
more striking resemblance to the grand-dam or grand-father than 
to their own immediate parents. It is evident that this is more 
likely where a common character has been preserved during suc- 
cessive generations, or, in turf language, where the blood has 
been preserved pure. A practical hint naturally presents itself 
on the extreme importance, therefore, of admitting no accidental 
admixture of blood, where it is peculiarly requisite that it should 
flow in true lineal descent ; seeing that its debasing consequen- 
ces are carried through whole generations, and unexpectedly ap- 
pear in a third or fourth." — P. 326. 

Dr. Elliotson, in a note to the fourth edition of his Translation 
of Blumenbach's Physiology, p. 569, observes, that " experience 
teaches us that changes brought about in an animal after birth 
are not in general transmitted to the offspring. The causes of 
jhange in a species must therefore operate, not by altering the 
parents, but by disposing them to produce an offspring more or 
less different from themselves. Such is John Hunter's view of 
the question, and it is certainly confirmed by every fact. I fear 
that John Hunter has not generally the credit of this observa- 
tion, but the following passage shows it to be clearly his : — ' As 
animals are known to produce young which are different from 
themselves in colour, form, and disposition, arising from what 
may be called the unnatural mode of life, it shows this curious 
power of accommodation in the animal economy, that although 
education can produee no change in the colour, form, or disposi- 
tion of the animal, yet it is capable of producing a principle 
which becomes so natural to the animal, that it shall beget young 
different in colour and form ; and so altered in disposition as to 
be more easily trained up to the offices in which they have been 
usually employed ; and having these dispositions suitable to such 
changes of form.' — Hunter, On the. Wolf, Jackall, and Dog." 
Dr. Elliotson adds a variety of illustrations, to which the readei 
is referred. 

It is stated by Dr. W. C. Edwards, in the work alluded to in 
No. V. of this appendix, that when animals of different species 
are crossed, they produce an animal of an intermediate type, or 
a mule : but that when different varieties of the same species are 
mixed, the result is often quite different. M. Coladon of Gene- 
ra, he says, made a very striking experiment, which bean 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 357 

strongly on this point. He procured a great number of white mice, 
ns well as of common brown mice, studied their habits, and found 
means to cause them to breed. In his experiments he always 
put together mice of different colours, expecting a mixed race ; 
but this did not occur in one instance. All the young mice were 
either white or brown, but each type was produced always in a 
state of purity. Even in the case of varieties of the same spe- 
cies, adds Dr. Edwards, we have an intermediate type or mule ; 
but this is when the varieties differ most from each other ; when, 
as in the case of the mice, they approach very nearly, mules are 
not produced. In both cases we see one common principle, 
namely, that the mother often produces a being of a type differ- 
ent from her own — less so, however, in the latter case. This 
principle is seen even in the same variety ; for here also the mo- 
ther, in producing a male, gives birth to a being whose type dif- 
fers, and in some cases differs very much, from her own. Now, 
says Dr. E., the same is observed in man. The varieties which 
differ most strongly, such as the negro and white, when crossed, 
produce mulattoes ; and when varieties more nearly resembling 
each other are crossed, the descendants sometimes resemble one 

f>arent, sometimes the other, sometimes both. This, Dr. Edwards 
ooks upon as the cause of the great variety observable in mod- 
ern nations ; among which, however, he thinks we can always 
observe specimens of the pure types which have entered into 
their composition. Thus, even if two races having considerable 
resemblance to each other, and in equal numbers, were to mix 
without limitation, the original types would still, in his opinion, 
frequently occur in their descendants. Dr. Edwards very inge- 
niously applies to the elucidation of history, these and other 
principles connected with the physiological characteristics of 
races of mankind. For details, I refer to the Phrenological 
Journal, vol. ix. p. 97-108. 

In the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. I., there are se- 
veral valuable articles illustrative of hereditary transmission in 
the inferior animals. I select the following examples : — 

" Every one knows that the hen of any bird will lay eggs, al- 
though no male be permitted to come near her ; and that those 
eggs are only wanting in the vital principle which the impregna- 
tion of the male conveys to them. Here, then, we see the female 
able to make an egg, with yolk and white, shell and every part, 
just as it ought to be, so that we might at the first glance, suppose 
that here, at all events, the female has the greatest influence. 
But see the change which the male produces. Put a Bantam 
eock to a large-sized hen, and she will instantly lay a small egg ; 
the chick will be short in the leg, have feathers to the foot, and 
put on the appearance of the cock : so that it is a frequent com 
plaint where Bantams are kept, that they make the hens lay 
•mall eggs, and spoil the breed. Reverse the case j put a larga 



8SS 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 



dunghill cock to Bantam hens, and instantly they will lay larger 
eggs, and the chicks will be good sized birds, and the Bantam 
will have nearly disappeared. Here then are a number of facts 
known to every one, or at least open to be known by every one, 
clearly proving the influence of the male in some animals ; and 
as I hold it to be an axiom that nature never acts by contraries, 
never outrages the law clearly fixed in one species, by adopting 
the opposite course in another — therefore, as in the case of ar 
equilateral triangle, on the length of one side being given, we can 
with certainty demonstrate that of the remaining ; so, having 
found these laws to exist in one race of animals, we are entitled 
to assume that every species is subjected to the self-same rules — ■ 
the whole bearing, in fact the same relation to each other as the 
radii of a circle." 

Very young hens lay small eggs ; but a breeder of fowls will 
never set these to be hatched, because the animals produced 
would be feeble and imperfectly developed. He selects the 
largest and freshest eggs, and endeavours to rear the healthiest 
stock possible. 



" A Method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex, at the option 
of the Proprietor, in the Breeding of Live Stock. — Extracted 
from the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. I. p. 63. 

'* In the Annales de TAgriculture Francaise, vols. 37 and 38, 
some very interesting experiments are recorded, which have 
lately been made in France, on the Breeding of Live Stock. 
M. Charles Girou de Buzareingues proposed at a meeting of the 
Agricultural Society of Severac, on the 3d of July, 1826, to di- 
vide a flock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a greater num- 
ber of males or females, at the choice of the proprietor, should 
be produced from each of them. Two of the members of the 
Society offered their flocks to become the subjects of his experi- 
ments, and the results have now been communicated, which are 
in accordance with the author's expectations. 

" The first experiment was conducted in the following manner: 
He recommended very young rams to be put to the flock of ewea, 
from which the proprietor wished the greater number of females 
in their offspring ; and also, that, during the season when the 
rams were with the ewes, they should have more abundant pas- 
ture than the other ; while, to the flock from which the proprietor 
wished to obtain male lambs chiefly, he recommended him to put 
strong and vigorous rams four or five years old. The following 
tabular view contains the result of this experiment : 



APPENDIX. ORGANIC LAWS. 



359 



Flock for Female Lambs. 


Flock for Male Lambs. 


Age of the Mo- 
thers. 


Sex of the 
Lambs. 


Age of the Mo- 
thers. 


Sex of the 
Lambs. 


Two years, - 
Three years, - 
Four years, - 

Total, - - - 
Five years and 
older, - - - 

Total, - - - - 


males. 

14 

16 

5 

35 

18 
53 


females 
26 
29 
21 

76 

8 

84 


Two years, - 
Three years, - 
Four years, - 

Total, - - - - 

Five years and 

older, - - - 

Total, 


males. 

7 

15 

33 

55 

25 

80 


females 

3 

14 

14 

31 

24 

55 


N. B. — There were three twin 
births in this flock. Two rams 
served it, one fifteen months, 
the other nearly two years old. 


N. B. — There were no twin 
births in this flock. Two strong 
rams, one four, the other five 
years old, served it. 



" The general law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems to 
be, that, when animals are in good condition, plentifully supplied 
with food, and kept from breeding as fast as they might do, they 
are most likely to produce females. Or, in other words, when a 
race of animals is in circumstances favourable for its increase, 
nature produces the greatest number of that sex which, in animals 
that do not pair, is most efficient for increasing the numbers of 
the race : But, if they are in a bad climate or on stinted pasture, 
or if they have already given birth to a numerous offspring, then 
nature, setting limits to the increase of the race, produces more 
males than females. Yet, perhaps, it may be premature to at- 
tempt to deduce any law from experiments which have not yet 
been sufficiently extended. M. Girou is disposed to ascribe 
much of the effect to the age of the ram, independent of the 
condition of the ewe." 



No. VIII.— Laws relative to Marriage and Education 
in Germany. 

Text, p. 163. 

•'It cannot be altogether foreign to natural history," says Mr. 
Loudon, " to notice the influence of climate, food/ and political 
and religious regulations on the human species ; and we are un 



360 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

willing to leave Germany without saying something on so inter- 
esting a people as the Germans. It will not be denied that man 
is subject to the same laws as other animals, and that his natural 
or inborn character must depend principally on the climate and 
products of the soil where he is placed. His factitious or civil- 
ized character will as certainly depend on his education, taking 
that word in its most extensive sense, as including parental care 
and example, scholastic tuition, religion, and government. In 
warm fertile countries, where nature produces every thing spon- 
taneously, man becomes inactive, and has naturally few labours 
and few enjoyments. In extremely cold and inhospitable cli- 
mates, the enjoyments of man are also few, because the labour 
necessary to overcome natural objects is too great for his powers. 
It would seem, therefore, that intermediate climates are more fa- 
vourable for human happiness than either extremes ; but whether 
such are at all times temperate, as those of many parts of Italy 
and Spain, or such as are alternately temperate and severe, as 
those of the south of Germany and the north of France, are the 
best, may perhaps be doubted. It appears that a climate where 
the winters are severe, has a considerable influence on the hu- 
man character, by the necessity which it induces of fere-thought, 
in the laying up a provision of food for winter, and the greater 
attention and labour that are requisite in the article of clothing 
for that season. It is certain, on the other hand, that, in climates 
at all times temperate, the health, other circumstances being 
alike, must be better than in severe climates, where it is impaired 
by the artificial atmosphere of apartments during the winter sea- 
son ; and constant good health must necessarily have a consider- 
able influence on the character. Supposing, therefore, all the 
artificial circumstances to be the same in two climates, such as 
that of the south of Germany, and that of Italy or the central 
parts of France, it seems reasonable to conclude that man would 
attain to a higher degree of perfection in the latter climates than 
in the former. So much for our theory of the influence of soil 
and climate on man ; and, for farther details, we refer the reader 
to Dr. Falconer's work on the subject. 

" Of all the artificial or accidental circumstances which influ- 
ence the character, personal education must be allowed to be the 
greatest, and next, religion and government. Manner of life, 
occupations, and pursuits, and even amusements, have an im- 
portant influence. To do more than premise these matters, would 
be unsuitable to this Magazine ; but what has been said became 
necessary as an introduction to what is to follow. 

" Applying the above theory to the three states of Germany 
which we have passed through, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and Ba- 
den, the climate and soil of these states seem favourable in the 
second degree ; education, to a certain extent, is there universal; 
religion is, on the whole, more simple than in some other coun 



AiTfcEXDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 861 

t??es , and tht laws LJid governments seem, at least, equal in 
constitutional merits wi-l impartial administration, to those of 
any pe-^e ; n Europe. The manner of life, or occupation, is 
chiefly agricultural ; which, though not favourable to luxury or 
refinement, sev.ms, without doubt, for the great mass of the peo- 
ple, the happiest mode of txistence. Local and personal attach- 
ments are universally felt to be essential sources of happiness : 
and in no way can this feeling be gratified so easily and effectu- 
ally as by the possession of land. In the three countries named, 
the great majority of the population are occupiers in perpetuity, 
of a portion of the soil, either as absolute proprietors, or as perpe- 
tual renters. This state of things is far from being favourable to 
what is called making money ; but it is highly favourable to health 
and contentment. It is a great decJ for a poor man to have^ 
something which he can call his own ; something on which he can 
bestow labour, and from which he can, in consequence, extract 
enjoyment. The absolute necessities of life are few, and derived 
directly from the soil ; the labouring man, therefore, who has a 
house and a few roods of land, is certain of a home and food ; 
he increases the interest of his home by a wife ; and parental care 
and solicitude with connubial and filial attachment, fill up the 
measure of his happiness. These are the essential purposes and 
enjoyments of life, which nature intended for all men ; which 
the poor man can enjoy as well as the rich ; and for which no 
other enjoyment, either of the rich or the poor, the wise or the 
learned, can entirely compensate. In no part of Europe have 
we seen, or thought we have seen, these enjoyments so gen- 
erally diffused as in the countries we have recently passed 
through, and more especially Wurtemberg. We entered on 
these countries, expecting to find the people not much better off 
than in France ; but we could not resist the conviction produced 
by constant observation, and the result of various inquiry, that 
comfort and happiness exist to a much greater degree among the 
labouring classes of society in the south of Germany, than they 
do in Britain. The people, at first sight, have a milder and more 
civilized aspect. The dress of the country labourers, male and 
female, does not consist of such fine materials as in England ; 
but one part of the dress is of a quality consistent with the others, 
and the whole is in a superior style, compared with the dress of the 
other classes of society. There is no such thing in this part of 
Germany, as a man or woman in rags, or with a coat or gown of 
the best quality, and the hat or stockings in tatters, as is fre- 
quently the case, not only among labourers, but even among 
mechanics, in England. In short, the dress in Germany is in 
much better keeping. Both men and women of the labouring 
class here are more intelligent in their aspect, much more civil 
and polite on a first acquaintance, and much better furnished 
with conversation than tne British labourers. What struck us 
31 



362 APPENDIX. — ORGANIC LAWS. 

particularly were, the great rarity of exceptions to this genera* 
description, the general uniformity of manner and charactei 
throughout the whole country, and the total absence of public 
beggars. On inquiry, we found that there were few or no pooi 
supported publicly, though every parish is obliged to support its 
poor when unable to work ; and also, that there were few people 
in prison, either for debt or for crime of any kind. 

" This state of things more particularly applies to Wurtem- 
berg ; and the causes, we think, may be very easily traced. The 
first and principal cause is a law respecting schools, which has 
existed, more or less, in the states of the south of Germany for 
above a century, but which has been greatly improved within 
the last thirty years. By this law, parents are compelled to 
send their children to school, from the age of six to fourteen 
years, where they must be taught reading, writing, and arithme 
tic, but where they may acquire as much additional instruction 
in other branches as their parents choose to pay for. To many 
of the schools of Bavaria large gardens are attached, in which 
the boys are taught the principal operations of agriculture and 
gardening in their hours of play ; and, in all the schools of the 
three states, the girls, in addition to the same instruction as the 
boys, are taught knitting, sewing, embroidery, &c. It is the duty 
of the police and priest (which may be considered equivalent to 
our parish vestries) of each commune or parish, to see that the 
law is duly executed, the children sent regularly, and instructed 
daily. If the parents are partially or wholly unable to pay for 
their children, the commune makes up the deficiency. Religion 
is taught by the priest of the village or hamlet ; and where, a» is 
frequently the case in Wurtemberg, there are two or three reli- 
gions in one parish, each child is taught by the priest of its pa- 
rents ; all of which priests are, from their office, members of the 
committee or vestry of the commune. The priest or priests of 
the parish have the regular inspection of the schoolmaster, and 
aie required by the government to see that he does his duty ; 
while each priest, at the same time, sees that the children of his 
flock attend regularly. After the child has been the appointed 
number of years at school, it receives from the schoolmaster, 
and the priest of the religion to which it belongs, a certificate, 
without which it cannot procure employment. To employ any 
person under twenty-one, without such a certificate, is illegal, 
and punished by a fixed fine, as is almost every other offence 
in this part of Germany ; and the fines are never remitted, which 
makes punishment always certain. The schoolmaster is paid 
much in the same way as in Scotland ; by a house, a garden, 
and sometimes a field, and by a small salary from the parish ; 
and by fixed rates for the children. 

" A second law, which is coeval with the school-law, renders 
it illegal for any young man to marry before he is twenty-fcve, ur 



APPENDIX. DEATH. 363 

any young woman before she is eighteen ; and a young man, at 
whatever age he wishes to marry, must show to the police and 
the priest of the commune where he resides, that he is able, and 
has the prospect, to provide for a wife and family. 

" There are minor causes, but these two laws, and the general 
possession of land both by labourers and tradesmen, are the chief. 
Amongst the minor causes are the general simplicity of their 
forms of religion, and universal toleration ; even the Catholic 
faith in Wurtemberg is unattended with the ceremony and spec- 
tacle with which it is exhibited in various parts of Germany and 
France. The equal footing on which the different religions are 
placed, is also favourable to liberality of sentiment and good 
neighbourhood. That particular mildness of feature and cha- 
racter, so different from what is met with in the labouring classes 
m England, is no doubt partly owing to the greater proportion of 
vegetables and fruits which enter into the general diet of the 
population ; the almost total abstinence from strong liquors or 
spirits, the general drink being wine ; and, perhaps, to the almost 
unremitted smoking of tobacco from morning to night." — Maga- 
zine of Natural History. 



No. IX.— Death. 
Text, p. 194. 

The fact of a decrease in the mortality of England is strikingly 
supported by the following extract from the Scotsman of 16th 
April 1828. It is well known that this paper is edited by Mr. 
Charles Maclaren, a gentleman whose extensive information, 
and scrupulous regard to accuracy and truth, stamp the highest 
value on his statements of fact ; and whose profound and com- 
prehensive intellect warrants a well-grounded reliance on his 
philosophical conclusions. 

" Diminished Mortality in England. — The diminution 
of the annual mortality in England amidst an alleged increase of 
crime, misery, and pauperism, is an extraordinary and startling 
fact, which merits a more careful investigation than it has receiv- 
ed. We have not time to go deeply into the subject ; but we 
shall offer a remark or two on the question, how the apparent 
annual mortality is affected by the introduction of the cow-pox, 
and the stationary or progressive state of the population. In 
1780, according to Mr. Rickman, the annual deaths were 1 in 40, 
or one-fortieth part of the population died every year ; in 1821, 
the proportion was 1 in 58. It follows, that, out of any given 
number of persons, 1000 or 10,000, scarcely more than two 
deaths take place now for three that took place in 1780, or tkiu 
mortality has diminished 45 per cent. The parochial registcis q( 



O0£ APPExVDIX. DEATH. 

burials in England, from which this statement is derived, art 
known to be incorrect ; but as they continue to be kept without 
alteration in the same way, the errors of one year are justly con 
ceived to balance those of another, and they thus afford compara 
iive results, upon which considerable reliance may be placed. 

" A community is made up of persons of many various ages, 
among whom the law of mortality is very different. Thus, ac- 
cording to the Swedish tables, the deaths among children from 
the moment of birth up to 10 years of age, are 1 in 22 per an- 
num ; from 10 to 20, the deaths are only 1 in 185. Among the 
old, again, mortality is of course great. From 70 to 80, the 
deaths are 1 in 9 ; from 80 to 90 they are 1 in 4. Now, a com- 
munity like that of New- York or Ohio, where marriages are 
made early and the births are numerous, necessarily contains a 
large proportion of young persons, among whom the proportional 
mortality is low, and a small proportion of the old, who die off 
rapidly. A community in which the births are numerous, is 
like a regiment receiving a jrast number of young and healthy re- 
cruits, and in which, of course, as a whole, the annual deaths 
will be few compared with those in another regiment chiefly 
filled with veterans, though, among the persons at any particular 
age, such as 20, 40, or 50, the mortality will be as great in the 
one regiment as in the other. It may thus happen, that the annual 
mortality among 1000 persons in Ohio, may be considerably less 
than in France, while the Expectation of Life, or the chance 
which an individual has to reach to a certain age, may be no 
greater in the former country than in the latter ; and hence we 
see that a diminution in the rate of mortality is not a certain prooi 
of an increase in the value of life, or an improvement in the con 
dition of the people. 

" But the effect produced by an increased number of births is 
less than might be imagined, owing to the very great mortality 
among infants in the first year of their age. Not having time foi 
the calculations necessary to get at the precise result, which are 

Sretty complex, we avail ourselves of some statements given by 
Ir. Milne in his work on Annuities. Taking the Swedish ta- 
bles as a basis, and supposing the law of mortality to remain the 
same for each period of life, he has compared the proportional 
number of deaths in a population which is stationary, and in one 
which increases 15 per cent, in 20 years. The result is, that 
when the mortality in the stationary society is one in 36.13, that 
in the progressive society is one in 37.33, a difference equal to 
3£ per cent. Now, the population of England and Wales in- 
creased 34.3 per cent, in the 20 years ending in 1821, but in the 
interval from 1811 to 1821, the rate was equivalent to 39£ per 
cent, upon 20 years ; and the apparent diminution of mortality 
arising from this circumstance must of course have been about 
8£ per cent. We are assuming, however, that thepopulation was 






APPENDIX. DEATH. 365 

absolutely stationary at 1780, which was not the case. According 
to Mr. Milne (p. 437), the average annual increase in the five 
years ending 1784, was 1 in 155 ; in the ten years ending 1821, 
according to the census, it was 1 in 60. Deducting, then, the 
proportional part corresponding to the former, which is 3£, there 
remains 5£. If Mr. Milne's tables, therefore, are correct, we may 
infer that the progressive state of the population causes a diminution 
of 5£ per cent, in the annual mortality — a diminution which is only 
apparent, because it arises entirely from the great proportion of 
births, and is not accompanied with any real increase in the 
value of human life. 

" A much greater change — not apparent but real — was pro- 
duced by the introduction of vaccination in 1798. It was com- 
puted, that, in 1795, when the population of the British Isles was 
15,000,000, the deaths produced by the small-pox amounted to 
36,000, or nearly 11 per cent, of the whole annual mortality. 
(See article Vaccination in the Supplement to Encyclopaedia Bri- 
tannica, p. 713). Now, since not more than one case in 330 
terminates fatally under the cow-pox system, either directly by 
the primary infection, or from the other diseases supervening ; 
the whole of the young persons destroyed by the small-pox might 
be considered as saved, were vaccination universal, and always 
properly performed. This is not precisely the case, but one or 
one and a half per cent, will cover the deficiencies ; and we 
may therefore conclude, that vaccination has diminished the an' 
nual mortality fully nine per cent. After we had arrived at this 
conclusion by the process described, we found it confirmed by 
the authority of Mr. Milne, who estimates, in a note to one of 
his tables, that the mortality of 1 in 40 would be diminished to 1 
in 43-5, by exterminating the small-pox. Now, this is almost 
precisely 9 per cent. 

" We stated, that the diminution of the annual mortality be- 
tween 1790 and 1821 was 45 per cent., according to Mr. Rick- 
man. If we deduct from this 9 per cent, for the effect of vacci- 
nation, and 5 per cent, as only apparent, resulting from the in- 
creasing proportion of birth — 31 per cent, remains, which, we 
apprehend, can only be accounted for by an improvement in the habits t 
moral*, and physical condition of the people. Independently, then, 
of the two causes alluded to, the value of life since 1780 has in- 
creased in a ratio which would diminish the annual mortality 
from 1 in 40 to 1 in 52£, — a fact which is indisputably of great 
importance, and worth volumes of declamation in illustrating the 
true situation of the labouring classes. We have founded our 
conclusion on data derived entirely from English returns ; but 
there is no doubt that it applies equally to Scotland. It is con- 
soling to find, from this very unexceptionable species of evidence, 
that though there is much privation and suffering in the country, 
the situation of the people nas been, on the whole, progressively 
8J* 



3G6 APPENDIX. DEATH. 

improving during the last forty years. But how much greater 
would the advance have been, had they been less taxed, and 
better treated? and how much room is there still for future 
amelioration, by spreading instruction, amending our laws, les- 
sening the temptations to crime, and improving the means o., 
correction and reform ? In the mean time, it ought to be some 
encouragement to philanthropy to learn that it has not to struggle 
against invincible obstacles, and that even when the prospect 
was least cheering to the eye, its efforts were silently benefiting 
society." 

"Extract from Edinburgh Advertiser 13th January 1829 : " The 
following comparative table of the average duration of life at Ge- 
neva, during the last 260 years, is very remarkable. The grow- 
ing improvement affords a striking proof of the benefits resulting 
from the progress of civilization and the useful arts. 





Average Duration 




Years. 


Months . 


From 1560 to 1600, . 


18 


5 


1601 to 1700, . 


23 


5 


1701 to 1760, . 


32 




1761 to 1800, . 


33 


7 


1801 to 1814, . 


38 


6 


1815 to 1826, . 


38 


10 



"" It has been mentioned to me, that the late Dr. Monro, in his 
anatomical lectures, stated, that, as far as he could observe, the 
human body, as a machine, was perfect, — that it bore within it- 
self no marks by which we could possibly predict its decay, — 
that it was apparently calculated to go on for ever, — and that we 
learned only by experience that it would not do so ; and some 
persons have conceived this to be an authority against the doc- 
trine maintained in Chap. III. Sect. 2, that death is apparently 
inherent in organization. In answer, I beg to observe, that if 
we were to look at the sun only for one moment of time, say at 
noon, no circumstance in its appearance would indicate that it 
had ever risen, or that it would ever set ; but, if we had traced 
its progress from the horizon to the meridian, and down again 
till the long shadows of evening prevailed, we should have ample 
grounds for inferring, that, if the same causes that had produced 
these changes continued to operate, it would undoubtedly at 
length disappear. In the same way, if we were to confine our 
observations on the human body to a mere point of time, it is 
certain that, from the appearances of that moment we could not 
infer that it had grown up by gradual increase, or that it would 
decay; but this is the case only because our faculties are not 
fitted to penetrate into the essential nature and dependences of 



APPENDIX. EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 367 

things. Any man who had seen the body decrease in old age, 
could, without hesitation, predicate, that, if the same causes 
which had produced that effect went on operating, dissolution 
would at last inevitably occur; and, if his Causality were well 
developed, he would not hesitate to say that a cause of the de- 
crease and dissolution must exist, although he could not tell by 
examining the body what it was. By analyzing alcohol, no 
person could predicate, independently of experience, that it 
would produce intoxication ; and, nevertheless, there must be a 
cause in the constitution of the alcohol, in that of the body, and 
in the relationship between them, why it produces this effect. 
The notion, therefore, of Dr. Monro, does not prove that death is 
not an essential law of organization, but only that the human 
faculties are not able, by dissection, to discover that the cause of 
it is inherent in the bodily constitution itself. It does not follow, 
however, that this inference may not be legitimately drawn from 
phenomena collected from the whole period of corporeal exis 
tence. 



No, X. — Edinburgh Association for procuring Instruo 
tion in Useful and Entertaining Sciences. 

Text p. 202. 

The history of this Association is briefly stated in one of its 
Reports. u In the summer of 1832, several individuals, engaged 
in mercantile and trading avocations, and who were then attend 
ing Mr. Combe's evening course of lectures on Phrenology, ex- 
pressed a strong desire for a more extended course during win- 
ter, along with lectures on some other subjects of natural science. 
With this view, they resolved to form themselves into an Asso- 
ciation for procuring such instruction, at convenient hours and 
on moderate terms ; and in order to make the public acquainted 
with their intentions, as well as to ascertain the support likely 
to be obtained, they printed and circulated a ' Proposal for 
Courses of Lectures on Natural History, Chemistry, and Phre- 
nology combined with Physiology.' " These lectures were in- 
tended for instruction of persons of both sexes, belonging chiefly 
to the middle classes of society. They have been completely 
successful. 

The regulations of the Association are the following : — 

" I. The name of the Institution shall be, The Edinburgh 
Association for providing Instruction in Useful and 
Entertaining Sciences. 

" II. The subjects for lectures shall be left to the judgment of 
the Directors for the time being. 

M III, There shall be twenty-four Directors, one-half of whom 



868 APPENDIX. — EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 

shall be annually changed, and an equal number elected, by a ge- 
neral meeting of the members ; and the said Directors shall, from 
among their own number, choose a President, Treasurer, and 
Secretary. 

" IV. An annual payment of one guinea shall entitle the con- 
tributor to free tickets for all the lectures, to vote in the election 
of Directors, and to enjoy all the other privileges of an ordinary 
member. 

" V. Individuals shall be allowed to purchase tickets for ad- 
mission to one or more of the lectures, without becoming regular 
members. 

" VI. The funds shall be deposited in a respectable bank, (at 
present being so lodged,) in the names of the President, Treasurer, 
and Secretary. 

" VII. After the present season, the annual meeting of mem- 
bers for the election of office-bearers, and other general business, 
shall be held in the month of March." 

The report of the Association, dated October 1834, mentions, 
that " in November 1832, lectures on Phrenology, Chemistry, 
and Geology, were commenced, under the auspices of the As- 
sociation. At this early period the number of subscribers ex- 
ceeded all expectation ; and the courses which have since been 
given on Botany, Popular Education, Natural Philosophy, Astro- 
nomy, and Physiology, have likewise met with the most marked 
success." The following abstract of the pecuniary transactions 
to the close of last session, 1835, will show the great interest 
which has been taken by the public in the proceedings of the As 
sociation ; 



APPENDIX. — EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION. 



Total Receipt and Expenditure por Session 1832-3, 
1833-4, and 1834-5. 



CLASSES. 



Phrenology, 

Chemistry, 

Geology, 

Three Lectures on Education, ) 
given separately in April 1833, > 

Botany, day class, 

Botany, evening class, .... 

Three Lectures on Education,^ 
given in November 1833 (in ad- 
dition to the holders of Tickets I 
to any of the other classes, who [ 
were admitted to the Lectures 
on Education free), ... J 

Natural Philosophy, . . . < 

Astronomy, 

Physiology, 

Laws of the Animal Economy, 



Tick 
ets 
Sold 



449 
229 
251 



60 
192 



455 
317 
309 
197 



Visiters 
admitted 

at6d. 

each. 



2170 
387 
142 

242 at Is, 

33 do 
163 



340 



Receipts. 



621 
444 
330 
389 



£243 10 5 

100 7 9 

73 2 2 

12 2 

38 5 
75 12 



8 10 



185 14 7 

125 8 3 

95 17 9 

75 4 1 



2459 5261 £1033 14 



9 9 4 



Interest from Bank, 



£1043 3 4 
Paid Lecturers, and other charges, 855 811 



Surplus at 22d June 1835, 



£187 14 5 



In comparison with some other institutions, the pecuniary 
means of this Association have been limited ; but still they have 
been more than sufficient for defraying all necessary expenses. 
These expenses, too, have been considerable, particularly for 
room-rent, fittings, advertising, and printing ; for, besides the 
original prospectus, the Directors have already printed, and 
widely circulated, five detailed reports, comprehensive syllabu- 
ses for the four season courses of lectures, and a tabular view of 
the Linnean system of classification of plants, with explanatory 



370 APPENDIX. — MORAL LAWS. 

remarks, amounting in all to 8500 copies. Certain fundamenta* 
principles have been steadily kept in view, viz. that no reliance 
should be placed on eleemosynary aid — that the Directors should 
be regularly changed — that the instruction should be interesting, 
practical, and useful — that it should be applicable to both sexes 
from twelve years of age and upwards — and that full value should 
be given to the subscribers for their money, as well as a reasona- 
ble remuneration to the lecturers for their services. By continu- 
ing to act upon these principles, and by securing the aid of well 
qualified teachers, the directors confidently hope for a contin- 
uance of public support. 



No. XL— Infringement op Moral Laws. 

Text, p. 213. 

The deterioration of the operative classes ef Britain, which I 
attribute to excessive labour, joined with great alternations of 
high and low wages, and occasionally with absolute idleness and 
want, is illustrated by the following extract from a Report on 
Emigration by a Committee of the House of Commons : — 

" Joseph Foster, a weaver, and one of the deputies of an emi- 
gration society in Glasgow, states that the labour is all paid by 
the piece ; the hours of working are various, sometimes eighteen 
or nineteen out of twenty -four, and even all night once or twice 
a week ; and that the wages made by such labour, after deduct- 
ing the necessary expenses, will not amount to more than 4s. 6d. 
to 7s. per week, some kinds of work paying better than others. 
When he commenced as a weaver, from 1800 to 1805, the same 
amount of labour that now yields 4s. 6d. or 5s. would have 
yielded 20s. There are about 11,000 hand-looms going in Glas- 
gow and its suburbs, some of which are worked by boys and girls, 
and he estimates the average net earnings of each hand-weaver 
at 5s. 6d. The principal subsistence of the weavers is oatmeal 
and potatoes, with occasionally some salt herrings. 

" Major Thomas Moodie, who had made careful inquiries into 
the state of the poor at Manchester, states, that the calico and 
other light plain work at Colton and Blackburn yields the weaver 
from 4s. to 5s. per week, by fourteen hours of daily labour. In 
the power-loom work, one man attends two looms, and earns 
from 7s. 6d. to 14s. per week, according to the fineness- of the 
work. He understood that, during the last ten years, weavers* 
wages had fallen on an average about 15s. per week. 

"Mr. Thomas Hutton, manufacturer, Carlisle, states, that 
there are in Carlisle and its neighbourhood about 5500 families, 
er from 18,000 to 20,000 persons dependent on weaving. They 



APPENDIX. — MORAL LAWS. 871 

are ail hand-weavers, and are now in a very depressed state, in 
consequence of tho increase of power-loom and factory weaving* 
m Manchester and elsewhere. Taking fifteen of his men, he 
finds that five of them, who are employed on the best work, had 
earned 5s 6d. per week for the preceding month, deducting the 
necessary expenses of loom-rent, candles, tackling, &c. ; the 
next five, who are upon work of the second quality, earned 3s. 
lid. ; and the third five earned 3s. 7£d. per w^eek. They work 
from fourteen to sixteen hours a-day, and live chiefly on pota- 
toes, butter-milk, and herrings. 

" Mr. W. H. Hyett, Secretary to the Charity Committee in 
London, gives a detailed statement, to show, that, in the Hun- 
dred of Blackburn, comprising a population of 150,000 persons, 
90,000 were out of employment in 1826 ! In April last, when he 
gave his evidence before the Committee, these persons had gene- 
rally found work again, but at very low wages. They were la- 
bouring from twelve to fourteen hours a-day, and gaining from 
4s. to 5s. 6d. per w r eek. 

" Extract from Lord Advocate Sir William Roe's Speech in the 
House of Commons, llth March 1828, on the additional Circuit 
Court of Glasgow. 

" The Lord-Advocate, in rising to move for leave to bring in a 
bill to ' authorize an additional Court of Justiciar to be held at 
Glasgow, and to facilitate criminal trial in Scotland,' said he did 
not anticipate any opposition to the motion. A great deal had 
been said of the progress of crime in this country, but he was 
sorry to say crime in Scotland had kept pace with that increase. 
A return had been made of the number of criminal commitments 
in each year, so far back as the year 1805. In that year the num 
ber of criminal commitments for all Scotland amounted only to 
85. In 1809 it had risen to between 200 and 300 ; in 1819-20, it 
had increased to 400 ; and, by the last return, it appeared that, 
in 1827, 661 persons had been committed for trial. He was in 
clined to think that the great increase of crime, particularly in 
the west of Scotland, was attributable, in no small degree, to the 
number of Irish who daily and weekly arrived there. He did not 
mean to say that the Irish themselves were in the habit of com 
mitting more crime than their neighbours ; but he was of opinion, 
that their numbers, tended to reduce the price of labour, and that 
an increase of crime was the consequence. Another cause was 
the great disregard manifested by parents for the moral educa- 

* In what is called factory-weaving, an improved species of hand- 
loom is employed, in which the dressing and preparation of the web is 
offected by machinery, and the weaver merely sits and drives the 
shuttle. 



372 APPENDIX. MORAL LAWS. 

tion of their children* Formerly the people of Scotland were 
remarkable for the paternal care which they took of their off- 
spring. That had ceased in many instances to be the case. 
Not only were parents found who did not pay attention to the 
welfare of their children, but who were actually parties to their of 
criminal pursuits, and participated in the fruits of their unlawful 
proceedings. When crime was thus on the increase, it was 
necessary to take measures for its speedy punishment. The 
great city of Glasgow, which contained 150,000 inhabitants, and 
to which his proposed measure was meant chiefly to apply, stood 
greatly in need of some additional jurisdiction. This would 
appear evident, when it was considered that the court met there 
for the trial of capital offences, had also to act in the districts 
Renfrew, Lanark, and Dumbarton. In 1812, the whole number 
of criminals tried in Glasgow was only 31 ; in 1820, it was 83 ; in 
1823, it was 85; and in 1827, 211.— -The learned lord concluded 
by moving for leave to bring in a bill to authorize an additional 
circuit court of justiciary to be held at Glasgow, and x> facilitate 
criminal trial in Scotland." 



INDEX. 

A.bernethy, Mr. his opinion of Phrenology, 344. 

Acquisitiveness, 46, 56, 63, 69. 

Activity the source of happiness, 75. 

\dhesiveness, 46, 54, 69. 

Alexander VI., Pope, head and character of, 138. 

Alison, Mr. on the easy childbirlhs among the lower orders, 346. 

Amativeness, 46, 52, 68, 103. 

America, evils anticipated from slavery in the United States of, 
237. Cruelties of the Spaniards in, 240. Penitentiaries in, 
265. 

American Indians, character of the, 165. 

American war, 230. 

Animals, their constitution compared with that of man, 2, 3, 36, 
99. Hereditary transmission of their qualities, 144, 151, 351. 
Punishment inflicted by them on each other, 251, et seq. 

Anspach, Margravine of, quoted, 158. 

Aristides's advice as to the burning of the Spartan ships, 231. 

Aristocracy, source of the unhappiness of the, 224. 

Arnott, Dr. Neil, on the utility of the marine barometer in foretel- 
ling storms, 280. 

Barlow, Dr. his opinion of Phrenology .144. 

Barometer, its utility in foretelling storms, 279. 

Benevolence, sentiment of, 47, 60, 7 1 World not governed on 
the principle of Benevolence exclusively, 34. 

Blackstone on the laws of nature, ^37 

Blaine, Mr. Delabere, quoted on the breeding of horses and other 
animals, 353. 

Blair, Dr. Hugh, on the efficacy of prayer, 320. 

Blindness sometimes hereditary, 144. Case of blindness in 
several members of the same family, 155. 

Bonaparte's mother a woman of superior talent and courage, 156. 

Brahmins, their children naturally superior to those of other 
Hindoo castes, 146. 

Brain, description of the, 189. Is the organ of the mind, 112- 
Necessity for exercising it, 113, et seq. Dispositions accom- 
panying different forms of, 133, et sea. Its form and qualities 
transmissible from parents to children, 144, 147, 349. By 
improving the brain we may improve human character, 307. 

Breeding of live stock, 353 et seq. 



374 INDEX. 

Bridgewater bequest, 17. 

Britain too exclusively manufacturing and commercial, 218, 224, 
Corruption of her government arising indirectly from the sla\e 
trade, 227. Strictures on her conduct in entering on the 
American war, 230. Her national debt the punishment of 
foolish wars, 233. 

Brown, Dr. John, of Haadmgton, his complaint about the repeal 
of penal statutes against witches, 313. 

Brown, Di T'lomas, on the natural distinction between right 
and wrong, 264 ; on the desire of action, 341. 

Burton on the children of drunkards, 350. 

Butier, Bishop, on the government of God, 26. On the supre- 
macy of conscience, 36. On the extent to whieh suffering 
results from our own conduct, 268. 

Caldwell, Dr. Charles, 266, 267. Quoted on abstinence of certain 

persons from marriage, 161. On the cure of intemperance, 

360. 
Carib, engraving of skull of a, 164. 
Cautiousness, 47, 59, 70. 
Chalmers, Dr. quoted on the means of human improvement, 91 ; 

on the opposition to Newton's philosophy, 343. 
Childbirth, pains of, 105, 346. 
Children, resemblance of, to their parents, 143, et seq., 347-35& 

See Hereditary transmission. 
Christianity has proved itself insufficient, while unaided bjp 

physical science, to produce moral conduct among men, 307. 

Practical Christianity, how to be realized, 220, 305, 329. 
Christians, primitive, charged with atheism and impiety, 303. 
Circassian brain, 149. , 
Civilization of savages, whether it may be more easily effected 

by pacific or by forcible means, 241. 
Clergy, their zeal in persecuting and tormenting witches, 312. 

Outrht they to toach the natural as well as revealed laws o! 

God ? 332, 334. See Religion. 
Clerks, evils arising from a bad choice of, 174. 
Combination laws, injustice and inexpediency of the, 214. 
Combativeness, 46, 56, 69. 
Commercial prosperity and distress, 214, 370. 
Complexion, hereditary, 347. 
Conolly, Dr. his opinion of Phrenology, 344. 
Conscientiousness, 47, 61, 73. 
Constitution of man, general view of the, and tta relations to 

external objects, 1. ^ 

Constructiveness, 46, 69. 
Corruption of human nature, 20, 71, 86, 304. 
Cowper quoted on the punishment of the Spaniards for their 

cruelties in America, 240 ; on the laws of nature, 338. 



INDEX. 375 

Grabbers picture of an unhappy husband, 142. 

Crime, origin of, 256. How to be prevented, 257. Is it in- 
creased by education? 325, note. Increase of, in Scotland, 
371. 

Criminals, punishment of, 252. Brains of, 257. 

Deafness and dumbness in the same family, cases of, 154. 

Death, 31, 363. A natural institution, 5, 177. 

Depravity of the human mind, 20, 71, 87, 306. 

Destructiveness, 46, 56, 69. 

Disease, hereditary transmission of, 145, 164. At different ages, 

186. Always has a cause, 186. 
Dogs, acquired habits of, hereditary, 152. 
Draining renders countries more salubrious, 119. 
Drunken fathers produce inferior children, 350-1. Tendency to 

drunkenness hereditary, 350. How curable, 350. 

Edinburgh, great fires in, 273. Edinburgh Association for pro- 
curing Scientific Instruction, 367. 

Education, Dr. Chamfers on its power to improve the human 
race, 91. Utility of, 114. Classical and scientific compared, 
199. Scientific, 202. Utility of Phrenology in relation to, 
325. Does education increase it ? 325, note. What it ought 
to be, 333. State of, in Wurtemberg, 362. 

Edwards, Dr. W. C, quoted 347, 356. 

Eggs of hens, 357. 

Elliotson, Dr. John, quoted, 344, 356. 

Emancipation of the Negro slaves, 239. 

Erskine on the laws of nature, 338. 

Ebenezer, his account of the despondency of his wife, 

130. 

Evil, why does it exist? 35. See Misery. 

Excise laws, their oppressive and unjust operation fifty years 
ago, 228. 

Exercise indispensable to happiness, 75, 113, et seq. 341. 

Exmouth, Lord, quoted, 278. 

Expediency and justice always accordant, 231. 

Faculties of man, summary of the, 45, et seq. Compared with 
each other, 49. Compared with external objects, 68. 

Fail of man, 12, et seq., 71, 86, 178, 306. 

Fanaticism, cause of, 320. 

Features, national, hereditary descent of, 347. 

Fire, benefits accruing from its proper use, and evils from its 
misapplication, 246. 

Fires in Edinburgh in 1824, causes of, 273 

Firmness, one of the faculties, 47, 74. 

Flint's account of the American Indians, 165. 



376 INDEX. 

Food, relation of, to climate, 41. 

France, crime in different departments of, 325. 

Franklin, Dr. quoted, 41. 

Captain, quoted, 148. 

Fraser, Rev. Dr. quoted on the fulfilment of Scripture, 317, 
French Revolution, 234. Philosophers of the, 337. 
Friendship, 54, 66. 
Future state, 22, 192, 198. 

Geology, truths revealed by, 4, 177. Scripture Geology, 302. 

Germany, burning of witches in, 312. State ot the lower oiders 
in, 359. Education in, 360. 

Girou de Buzareingues, his experiments on the breeding of live 
stock, 358. 

Globe, progressively adapted for the reception of man, 4, 177. 

God, existence and attributes of, discoverable from his work, 1 
72, Professor Sedgwick and Bishop Butler on his government 
26. Locke on his benevolence and justice 98. Principles 
on which his laws seem to be instituted, 244. 

Good, Dr. John Mason, quoted, 146, 154. 

Government, ought it to interfere with industry ? 222. 

Gravitation, law of, results of obedience to, and neglect of, 38, 
98, 289. 

Gregory, Drs. John and James, quoted, on the hereditary trans- 
mission of mental qualities, 144, 145. 

Guerry, M., on crime in France, 325. 

Habits, hereditary transmission of, 148. 

Haggart, David, engraving of his head, 175. 

Haller quoted, 147. 

Happiness, how attainable, 75, 196. Why so little advance has 

been made in the pursuit of, 90. Influence of the natural laws 

on that of individuals, 289. 
/lare, murderer, engraving of his head, 134. 
Harmonious gratification of the faculties necessary to happiness* 

85. 
Head, different forms of, 135. See Brain. Phrenology. 
Health, prerequisites of, 104. 
Hens, their eggs how made to vary in size, 357. 
Hereditary transmissisn of bodily and mental qualities, 106, 143, 

et seq. 260, 347; and of acquired habits, 151. Of temporary, 

mental and bodily qualities, 153. Of national features, 347 

Of complexion, 348. 
History exhibits man progressively improving, 8, 210. 
Holy Spirit, influence of, on the mind, 307, 321. 
Honesty the best policy, 231. 
Hope, sentiment of, 47, 60, 72. 
Horace quoted, 144. 






INDEX. 377 

Horses, breeding of, 353, et sea. 

Human nature. See Man. Constitution of Man. 

Ideality, 47, 60, 72. 

Idiocy, hereditary, 147. Case of idiocy, 173. 

Idleness, misery of, 117,, 223. 

Imitation, one of the faculties, 47, 74. 

Independence of the natural laws, 19, 29, 129. 

Intellectual faculties, 48, 61, 74. Intellectual laws, 28. 

Intemperance, cause of, and method of cure, 350. 

James I. of England, his pusillanimity accounted for, 156. 
Johnson, Samuel, on the evils arising from hasty marriages, 142. 
Jury trial in Scotland, errors in the mode of conducting it pointed 

out, 271. 
Justice always in accordance with expediency, 232. Defective 

administration of, 272. 

Karnes, Lord, quoted, 35, 222, 320, 340. 

Knowledge, acquisition of, agreeable, 77. Happiness advances 
with, 93. Knowledge of science necessary for rightly inter- 
preting Scripture, 309, et seq. 

King, Dr. quoted, 146. 

Labour, man intended for, 41, 341. Evils arising attending its 
excess, 211, etseq. 

Lawrence, Mr. quoted, 238, note, 346. 

Laws of Nature, 23. Three great classes of, 19, 27. Their in 
dependence, 19, 29, Definition of the term, 24. Obedience 

• to each rewarded, and neglect punished, 30. Universal, in- 
varialjJe, and unbending, 30. In harmony with the whole con 
Stitution of man, 31. To what extent are the miseries of man- 
kind referribte to infringement of them ? 98. Excuse of some, 
that leisure for studying and obeying them is wanting, 203. 
Confusion produced by attempts to mend them, 222. Applica- 
tion of, to the practical arrangements of life, 87. Difference 
between uncertain and unascertained, 185. Punishment 
inflicted under the, 244. Instituted for the benefit of created 
beings, 246. Moral advantages of punishment under them, 
267. Their combined operation, 271. Their influence on the 
happiness of individuals, 289. Extracts from authors who 
have treated of, 337. 

Leechman, Dr. quoted on the efficiency of prayer, 319. 

Legislation, utility of Phrenology in relation to, 324. 

Life, love of, 45, 52, 189. Duration of, increasing, 231, 335w 
Plan of, 88. 

Locke on the objects ^of divine punishments, 98. 
32* 



378 INDEX. 

Loudon, Mr. J, C, quoted on the state of the lower orders in 
Germany, and education there, 359. 

Love of Approbation, 46, 57, 70. 

"Love thy neighbour as thyself," 307. 

Lyon, Captain, unsuccessful result of his attempt to reach Re- 
pulse Bay traced to its causes, 281. 

Machinery, anticipated moral effects from employment of, in 
manufactures, 218. 

Macintosh, Dr. his opinions of Phrenology, 344. 

Maclaren, Mr. Charles, on the diminution of mortality in Eng- 
land, 363. 

Macnish, Mr. his opinion of Phrenology, 345. 

Malthus's principle of population, 208. 

Man, doctrine of the fall of, 12, et seq. 71, 86, 178, 305. Man 
considered as a physical being, 37 ; as an organized being, 30 ; 
as an animal, moral, and intellectual being, 44. Intended for 
activity, 40, 216. Summary of his mental faculties, 44, etseq. 
These compared with each other, 49, and with external ob- 
jects, 68. A progressive being, 9, 91. Apparently but in the 
infancy of his existence, 94. Slowness of his progress, 232. 

Manufacturing population, source of miseries of the, 211, et seq. 
370. 

Marriage, miseries arising from neglect of the organic laws in, 52, 
141-3, 157, 159, et seq. Prohibited before the age of twenty-five 
in Wurtemberg, 163. Improper between blood relations, 172. 

Melancthon, his head and character, 136. 

Miseries of mankind, how far referrible to infringement of the 
laws of nature, 97, 265. Social miseries, 133, et seq. 

Misery and evil, sources of, particularly mentioned in this work. 
— Illsorted and too early marriages, 53, 141-3 157, 159, et seq. 
Breach of the physical laws, 98, 290. Idleness, 117, 224. 
Filth, and impurity of air, 1 18. Ignorance of the organic laws, 
or physiology, 123, 127, 201. Bad choice of servants, clerks, 
partners, and agents, 174. Rash mercantile speculation, 204. 
Mistaken choiee of a profession, 205. Excess of population, 
223. Too severe and long continued labour, 208. Oscilla 
tions of trade and manufactures, 211. National selfishness 
and unjust wars, 225, et seq. The slave trade, 236. Errors in the 
mode of conducting Jury trials, 271 ; and in the proceedings 
of judges in the Circuit Courts, 273. Scotch and English 
hostility, 275. Selfishness in captains of ships, 277. Breach 
of the organic laws, 290. 

Montesquieu on the laws of nature, 337. 

Moral laws, 28. Calamities arising from their infringement* 
194. Sanctions of the, 270. 

Moral sentiments and intellect, supremacy of the, 50. 



INDEX. 379 

Moral science outstripped by physical, 242. 
More, Hannah, on the effects of sickness on the religious cha- 
racter, 131. 
Mortality, diminution of, 40, 193, 364. 
Moscow, French retreat from, 115. 
Mother, her influence on the child, 146, 153. 
Murray, Captain, his mode of preserving health of seamen, 124. 

National brains and character, 146, 163. Hereditary descent of 

national features, 347. 

prosperity, effect of the moral law on, 224. 

debt of Britain the result of her wars, 233. 

National Laws. See Laws of Nature. 

Navigation, dangers of, 277. 

Negro slavery, 236. Intellectual and moral character of the Ne 

groes, 238, note. 
New doctrines often charged with impiety, 303. 
New Zealanders, their excellent health, 104. Prognosticate 

storms, 279. 

Operatives, causes of their depressed condition, 209, et seg. 370. 

Opium, benefits accruing from its proper, and evils from its im- 
proper use, 249. 

Optimism, 3, 32. 

Organic laws, 28. Evils that befall mankind from infringing 
them, 102, 289, et seq. 

Organized being, man considered as an, 39, Conditions of health 
of organized beings, 104. 

Owen, Mr. 90. 

Pain, utility of, 248, 267. 

Paley, on the contrivances in creation, 32, 

Parliamentary reform, 236. 

Partners, evils arising from a bad choice of, 174, 207 

Penitentiaries, 265. 

Pestilence, 118. 

Philoprogenitiveness, 46, 53, 63, 69. 

Phrenology, 15, 35, 44, 89, 93, 143, 174, 194, 304. Human iacul 

ties according to, 45. Practical utility of, 322. Account of its 

progress, 343. 
Physical laws, 28. How man may be placed in accordance with 

them, 38. Calamities arising from their infringement, 98. 
Physiology ought to be generally studied, 107. 
Plutarch, on the children of drunken parents, 350. 
Political economy, 199, 214. 
Politics, utility of phrenology in relation to, 324. 



§30 INDEX. 

Population, Malthus's principle of, 208. Increase of, in manu- 
facturing towns, 210. 

Prayer has no effect but on the supplicant, 3l a « 

Principles, utility of a knowledge of, 121. 

Prichard, Dr. quoted on the hereditary descent of bodily peculi- 
arities, 150, 153, 155, 160. 

p r fession, choice of a, 204. 

Propagation, laws of, 143, et seq. See Hereditary Transmission. 

Punishment for breach of the natural laws, 244. Punishment 
inflicted by the lower animals compared with that inflicted by 
man, 251, et seq. Of criminals, 253, et seq. Flogging, the 
treadmill, executions, 259. Moral advantages of punishment, 
267. 

Quarterly Review quoted, 343. 

Reform of Parliament, 236. 

Religion and religious opinions, 12, 20, 32, 130-3, 179, 265, 299, 

et seq. 327. See Clergy. Revelation, Scripture. 
Remorse, its occurrence after offences, how reconcilable with 

benevolence, 73. 
Retirement from business generally followed by unhappiness, 116. 
Revelation, 32. Cannot be at variance with true science, 299, 

et seq. 
Right and wrong, natural distinction between, 264. 

Safety-lamp, 119. 

Salvation of man, 32. 

Savages, how most easily civilized, 241. Easy child-births 
among, 347. 

Science, physical, has far outstripped moral, 242. Revelation 
between science and scripture, 299. Progress of scientific 
discovery, 95. 

Scotland, persecution of witches in, 311. Increase of crime in, 
371. 

Scripture, interpretation of, 20. A knowledge of science neces- 
sary for correctly interpreting it, 308, et seq. Its text in many 
places corrupted, and the meaning obscure, 314-318. Its 
meaning appears different to different minds, 327. 

Seamen, Captain Murray's mode of preserving the health of, 
124. 

Seceders, their solemn complaint about the repeal of penal sta 
tutes against witches, 313. 

Secretiveness, 46, 56, 69. 

Sedgwick, Professor, on God's government of the world by fen 
eral laws, xi. On scripture and science, 302. 

«elf asteem, 46, 57,70. 



INDEX. 38\ 

Servants, choice of, 174. 

Shakspeare quoted, 353. 

Sheep, acquired habits hereditary in, 152. 

Sheridan, R. B. 135. Engraving of his head, ib. 

Shipwreck from neglect of the natural laws, 277, et seq. 287. 

Sickness, amount of, at different ages, 185. 

Slave-trade, corruption of the British government, indirectly 

flowing from the, 226. 
Slavery in the United States, evils anticipated from, 237. 
Social law, calamities from infringement of the, 205. 
Society, advantages resulting from, 205. 
Spaniards punished under the natural laws for their cruelties ill 

America, 240. 
Sparrman, Dr. quoted, 115. 
Spurzheim on tne- natural laws, vii. 
St. Pierre quoted on death, 182, 183. 
Stephenson, Mr. W. B. on the colours of mixed American breeds. 

353. 
Stewart, Dugald, quoted, 195, 216, 340. 
Storms at sea, often prognosticate, 277, et seq. 
Stuarts, hereditary character of the, 146. 
Supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, 49. Happiness 

arising therefrom, 194. 

Taylor, Jeremy, quoted on the corruptions and obscurity of 

scripture, 314. 
Tell, William, 245. 
Truth, slow progress of, 266. 

Wages, lowness of, 213, 221. 

War, the American, 230. Wars absurd, 232. French revoln 

tionary war, 234. National punishment for engaging in wars, 

230, et seq. 
Wardlaw, Dr. Ralph, on the corruption of human nature, 20. 
Wealth, engrossing pursuit of, 204, 209. 
Whately, Archbishop, on scripture and science, 304. 
Williams, murderer, engraving of his head, 135. 
Witches, appalling atrocities perpetrated against them in Ger 

many, 310. England, 310, and Scotland, 311. 
Women, their pains in childbed, 105, 346. 
Wonder, sentiment of, 47, 61, 73. 
Wurtemberg, laws in, rendering education indispensable, and 

prohibiting marriage before the age of twenty-five, 168, 303, 

Vaccination, diminv 'on of mortality by, 118, 365. 
Vanity, 57 . 
Veneration 47, 60, 71 



332 I>TDEX. 

Ventilation and health. 40, 273. 
Vitelhus, engraving of his head, 140 
Volney, on the laws of nature, 338. 

Volt Hire quoted on the hereditary trams mission of bodily rjuan 
ilea. 145. 



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and so lucidly explained 

We think most highly of this, as 
we do of all Dr. Combe's works. 
It is equally valuable to the non- 
professional as to the profession- 
al individuals-Metropolitan Ma- 
gazine. 

11 His physiological works are 
beyond all praise." — Westmin- 
ster Review. 



OLIVER TWIST; or, The 
Parish Boy's Progress. — 1 vol., 
12mo., with steel-plate engra 
vings. 



THE POSTHUMOUS PA- 
PERS OF THE PICKWICK 
CLUB. — 2 volumes, 12mo., with 
steel-plate engravings. The il- 
lustrations are by R. Seymour, 
Phiz, and Crowq.uill. 

The Life and Adventures of 
NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, con- 
taining a faithful account of 
the fortunes, misfortunes, up- 
risings, downfallings, and 
complete career of the NIC- 
KLEBY Family.— 2 vols.,12mo., 
with steel-plate engravings. 



MASTER HUMPHREY'S 
CLOCK. Containing "THE 
OLD CURIOSITY SHOP."— 
2 vols., 12mo. New edition. 

BARNABY RUDaE.-2rols., 
12mo. This work is published, 
without reference to " Master 
Humphrey's Clock" as a separate 
novel, being complete within 
itself. 



LIST OF BOOKS. 



*** Dickens' works are printed on good paper, and bound in 
boards, with cloth backs, to match. The whole of his works 
are completed in nine volumes, (" Grimaldi," u Sketches of 
E very-day Life," and " The Pic Nic Papers »» excluded, they not 
being his writings, having merely superintended the publication 
of them,) and may be had in sets or separately. 



3SfiES03SILiILi^SJIS@WS IPWUM^^inrCDMo 



VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD, 

FROM THE FIRST BY MAGELLAN, IN 1520, 
TO THAT OF FREYCINET, IN 1S20. 
Now first collected, by Captain SAMUEL PRIOR. 
Complete in 1 vol., royal 8vo., full cloth. Illustrated with 
twelve engravings, and accompanied by a Map of the World ac- 
cording to the latest discoveries, (steel-plate.) 



STANLEY THORN. 

By HENRY COCKTON, ESQ., Author of 

"Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist," and "George St. 
George Julian." Complete in 1 vol., 12mo., boards, with cloth 
backs. 



Notices of the English Press. 

" In this story a striking cha- 
racter is developed. Stanley's 
introduction to Eton, the rebel 
lion and expulsion, are cleverly 
done." — Spectator. 

" We consider it due to the ta- 
lent which 'Stanley Thorn' dis- 
plays to call the special attention 
of our readers to it." — Conner. 

" This new story begins raci- 
ly, and dashes into Eton and its 
fag and flogging system with a 
merciless sort of reminiscence of 
the miserable and the ludicrous 
in both. Some of the living 
masters will not be altogether 
obliged to the author, particu- 
larly as his satire is not of that 
stringent kind which is point 
less for want of talent. • Stanley 
Thorn,' too, in another way, 
seems to have some reference to 
late expulsions. "-Morning Post. 



Stanley Thorn* contains 
some excellent hits."- Cambridge 
Independent Press. 

11 ' Stanley Thorn > is an ex- 
cellent tale.' 1 — Hull •Advertiser. 
Stanley Thorn' makes a 
capital opening, and we have 
no doubt will uphold its charac 
ter." — Edinburgh Observer. 

" Henry Cockton presents us 
with a new story, called « Stan- 
ley Thorn," the talents display- 
ed in which we have great plea- 
sure in pointing out to our rea- 
ders. The author is particularly 
happy in his description of the 
ancient and celebrated school oi 
Eton and its scholars. The 
courtship, too, of Mr. Ripstone, 
by the widow Thorn, is exces- 
sively humorous and well writ- 
ten. The tale of 'Stanley Thorn' 
will, we predict, take a high 
rank." — Weekly Despatch, 



LIST OF BOOKS. 



THE POLITICAL 

HISTORY OF THE DEVIL, 

AS WELL ANCIENT AS MODERN. 
Bad as he is, the Devil may be abused, 
Be falsely charged, and causelessly accused, 
When men, unwilling to be blamed alone, 
Shift off those crimes on him which are their own. 
Containing a state of the Devil's circumstances, and the vari- 
ous turns of his affairs, from his expulsion out of heaven to the 
creation of man ; with remarks on the several mistakes concern- 
ing his fall. Also his proceedings with mankind ever since 
Adam, to the first planting of the Christian religion in the world. 
Also his private conduct down to the present time : his govern- 
ment, his appearances, his manner of working, and the tools he 
works with. By DE FOE.— 2 vols., 12mo., boards, cloth backs. 

OUR MESS. 

JACK HIM, THE GUARDSMAN. 

By HARRY LORREQUER, (Dr. Lever,) Author of " Charles 
O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon." — 1 vol., royal 8vo., cloth backa. 

" The two greatest fiction writers of the age are Dickens and 
Harry Lorrequer. Their works have given birth to a new school 
of novelists and to a new era in our literature." — Fife Herald. 

" His genius is essentially different from Boz — delighting in 
broad humour and exquisite description. His descriptions of Irish 
scenery are excellent, and he rivals Miss Edgeworth in her por 
trayalof Irish manners. But 'the gem of the sea' is not the 
only theatre of his life : he is equally delighted when abiding 
in other lands, and on all occasions exhibits himself as a scholar 
and a gentleman." — Cambridge Chronicle. 

COLIN CLINK. 

Containing the CONTENTIONS, DISSENTIONS, LOVES, 
HATREDS, JEALOUSIES, HYPOCRISIES, AND VICIS- 

SITUDES INCIDENT TO HIS CHECKERED LIFE. By CHARLES 

HOOTON.— 1 vol., 12mo., cloth backs. 



THE CLOCKMAKER; 

OR, THE SAYINGS AND DOINGS OF 

SAMUEL SLICK, OF SLICKVILLE. 
By the Author of " The Letter-bag of the Great Western ; or, 
A Life on board of a Steamer." First and Second Series. — The 
two Series complete in 1 vol., 12mo., cloth backs. 



